Strike Three
by eonentity
Summary: Melany's finally captured Yellow, but Gold and Crystal soon set out to find their senior. But another player enters the game and threatens to destroy their plans entirely. With Amber's help, will Gold and Crystal be able to rescue Yellow? Or risk losing one of themselves in the process? The Third Chapter of the Old Grudge series and sequel to Two Sides to Every Story.
1. Prologue & Chapter 1: A Day Off

Me: *driving a car* Hello everybody! Welcome to the next installment of the-ah! *swerves to miss a trash can*

Gardevoir: *in the passenger seat* DON'T TALK WHILE YOU'RE DRIVING! YOU KNOW HOW DISTRACTED YOU GET!

Me: *sweatdrop* So, I just got out of Drivers ED! *rage* The reason it took me so long to get this new story out-! *turns sharply away from oncoming car*

Gardevoir: What did I just say?! You focus on driving, and I'll do the introduction!

Me: *determined face* Hai!

Gardevoir: *sigh* Let's try this again. *tries to imitate me* _Welcome to the next installment of the Old Grudge series: Strike Three!_

Me: *glare* I don't sound like that!

Gardevoir: *rolls eyes* Yes you do.

Me: DO NOT! *subconsciously drives onto railroad in front of train*

Gardevoir: AH! *points frantically* TRAIN! TRAIN!

Me: *hits the accelerator hard and drives off of railroad just as train goes by* *sigh* We made it.

Gardevoir: *shell-shocked* Let's not do that again. **Disclaimer: Eon doesn't own Pokemon in any way. Just her cute little plot. **

_**Warning: **_**If you have not read Eon's previous stories, It Just Takes One and Two Sides to Every Story, then this will be one confusing ride for you. Might want to go check them out before starting this one. **

* * *

Prologue

Yellow's eyes were covered by a dark cloth, and she couldn't see anything. She could, however, feel Melany's guiding hands on her shoulders, making sure she didn't run into anything. After they walked for a while, Melany brought her to a halt, taking her hands away a moment to swipe a card through the lock on the door in front of them and type in a password. There was a soft ping, and she pulled the door open before leading Yellow through.

Inside, glass walls created a single room with tons of control panels and three other laboratory rooms on each side, all separated by a thick pane of glass. Two of the rooms were empty, but the third was occupied by a single bed surrounded by various machines. A few scientists were bustling around the control room, and Melany removed the cloth from Yellow's eyes as they moved another bed from an empty room into the occupied one.

"W-Where am I?" Yellow whispered softly, blinking in the light.

Melany folded the blindfold and stuffed it in her pocket. "Headquarters. They're setting up a place for you to rest. After all, it _is_ about two in the morning right now."

As if on cue, Yellow gave a small yawn but hurriedly tried to hide it. Melany chuckled a little and gestured for her to walk forward. Yellow did so hesitantly, and Melany ushered her into the brightly lit glass room. The petite blonde saw a bed in front of her as they entered and looked to Melany for confirmation. Once the older girl nodded, Yellow slowly went over to sit down on it.

"So, um…what happens now?" She asked quietly. "I've never been kidnapped before…"

Instead of answering, Melany turned around as the scientists scurried out of the room to make way for another person. It was a guy with russet-colored hair, the shade between red and brown to the point that Yellow couldn't tell which it really was. His eyes were an ice blue hue, and they were narrowed slightly as he walked over to Melany.

"Finally back from your mission?" He asked with a smirk.

Melany raised an eyebrow before smirking back. "Yes, actually I am." She turned to Yellow and held out a hand. "Wait here. I need to go report to Master." Leaning over, she kept her voice low near the younger girl's ear. "Whatever you do, _do not_ get up from this bed. I mean it."

Yellow stiffened a little but didn't really have a choice. She stayed on the bed as she was told while Melany walked for the exit. She stopped briefly at the boy and glared at him a moment before silently leaving him with Yellow. He seemed to chuckle a little, the action unsettling to Yellow.

Noticing her discomfort, he strode over to her and reached out a hand. "Nice to finally meet you, Master's pet. My name's Drake."

Yellow's face scrunched up a bit at the nickname, but she slowly shook his hand. "Nice to…meet you."

He laughed softly. "Don't worry. If you cooperate, it won't take long for Master to get what he needs. And you won't be lonely." He pointed to the other side of the room. "We got you a roommate."

Yellow looked over, and for the first time, she saw the other bed that was surrounded by blinking machines. Her eyes widened in horror at what she found, and she paid no mind to Melany's warning, immediately jumping up from the bed to run over to the other one.

She knelt beside it, and she could barely find her voice. "Samantha…"

Lying on the sheets was the shiny Gardevoir from Amber's drawings, her flowing white body sprawling across the bed. There were bags under her eyes, and her dull blue hair appeared to be lacking its usual sheen. Yellow looked at her helplessly, tracing the tubes that ran into her skin back to the machines. Seeing her sickly state, the blonde closed her eyes and placed a hand on the Pokemon.

Instantly she could taste Samantha's exhaustion. The Gardevoir was fighting some kind of internal war, but after resisting for so long, it was starting to take its toll on her body. Letting out a breath, Yellow let some of her healing powers flood over her motionless figure. The girl felt a mental stirring, and her eyes widened as she heard a voice in her head.

"_What…what's going on?"_ It asked.

Yellow closed her eyes and answered. _"I'm healing you. You're very hurt, Samantha."_

There was a small gasp. _"How do you…oh my Arceus, you're Yellow aren't you?" _Said girl was about to respond when she felt the Gardevoir trying to force her healing powers away. _"No! Stop before they—!"_

A tube suddenly shot down from the ceiling and imbedded itself in Yellow's left hand. Right away, she could feel her powers beginning to channel down it like a redirected river. She frantically tried to call off her healing ability, but the tube was like a stopper and just kept draining it out of her.

"_No,__" _the Gardevoir whispered, this time making her thoughts aloud to all.

At the same time, Melany walked back into the room, her eyes widening at Yellow's situation. She gave a strangled cry and rushed over. "I told you to stay on that bed no matter what!"

Yellow tried to apologize, but already she was feeling faint from the drainage and passed out in Melany's arms. The blue-eyed girl looked up to see Drake watching the scene unfold, his arms crossed as he leaned against the glass wall. "Well that went right according to plan."

Melany frowned and carried Yellow back to her bed, maneuvering the hanging tube through a slot in the ceiling. "I didn't think we were going to jump into it right away."

Drake pushed off the wall and stood behind Melany with a hand on his chin. "Hm, sounds to me like you were trying to avoid that." He clicked his tongue. "Tut, tut. You wouldn't do well to defy Master's plans. What would happen if he found out one of his most important admins was actually going against him?"

Melany turned around and narrowed her eyes. "I never said I was going against him."

Drake only smiled deviously. "No, but I have a feeling that's what you were doing." Melany didn't say anything to contradict him, and the redhead nodded. "But don't worry, I'm not going to mention this minor detail to him. It'll be our little secret." He held up a finger and smirked. "However, I _am_ counting, so consider this strike one."

Chapter One: Crystal

"Wake up, Crystal-chan! Breakfast in five!"

My brain sluggishly came to, but my eyes stayed shut from weariness. Not wanting to get up, I grabbed the blankets on the bed and wrapped myself in them tighter. However, they seemed to be stuck under something so I pulled on them harder. I thought I heard a light chuckle and slowly made myself wake up. Forcing my eyes open, they widened as I saw another set of bright ones just inches from my own.

"Good morning!" Gold smirked.

"Holy Ho-Oh!" I screamed, kicking away from him and tipping over onto the floor. My flailing limbs managed to get me all tangled up in my sheets as I fell, and Gold busted out laughing as I fought to untangle myself. Finding a spot to poke my head out, I blew my bangs out of my eyes and glared at him. "What are you doing in my room?!"

His head popped up over the edge of the bed, an amused smile on his face. "Emerald's been calling for you for the past half an hour so I came to see if you were up."

"But why were you lying on my bed?!" I practically shrieked.

"Oh!" He held up a finger like he'd just remembered something. "Precisely for this reason!"

At that moment, the door to my bedroom opened, and in walked Emerald with a spatula in his hand. "Breakfast time, Crystal—!" He blinked. "Chan."

I turned to him with wide eyes. Gold was sprawled across my bed like he'd been sleeping there all night, and I was lying on the floor with half the sheets around me still hanging from underneath his arms. Emerald blinked again before glaring at Gold.

"I wanted to sleep with Crystal-chan last night, but you wouldn't let me!" He yelled angrily. "That's not fair!" He ran over to the chuckling Gold and started pulling him off the mattress. "So why do you get to?!"

Gold was biting his lip to keep from laughing, and I quickly stood up with a glare. "He didn't, Emerald. I promise you he didn't. He's just being his usual pervert."

Emerald succeeded in getting Gold off the bed and began swatting at his head with the spatula. "Gold!"

The raven-haired boy held up his hands only to get them smacked as well. "Hey, hey! It was just a joke!"

Emerald just kept smacking him and eventually chased the older boy out of the room. I sighed at them and stood up to fold the messy sheet. Once it was back where it should be, I started for my closet and searched inside for something to wear. However, I noticed that all my usual skirts and such were dirty, and I sweat-dropped. _I had a feeling I forgot to do the laundry last night._

Gold's head suddenly popped in with a grin. "Getting ready to change, are you?"

I glared and threw a sweatshirt from the floor at him. "Get out!"

It landed on his face and muffled his laughs. A second later, though, Emerald appeared behind him and smacked him straight across the head. The older boy face-planted the ground, and the blonde looked up at me with a grin. "Breakfast is ready, Crystal-chan."

I smiled at him. "Thank you, Emerald. I'll be down in a second."

He nodded and proceeded to drag Gold who was just starting to lift his head out of the room. I sighed at him and closed my closet. I'd leave the clothes problem until after I'd eaten.

Shutting my door behind me, I saw Emerald had left Gold in the hallway, and the boy was sitting up holding the back of his head. "Well, that hurt!"

I rolled my eyes. "Why do you have to antagonize him like that?"

Hopping to his feet, he grinned a teeth-showing smile. "Because it's fun!"

I sighed, and he stalked down the stairs. "Oh, stop being so serious about everything, Crys."

Glaring at the back of his head, I followed him to the kitchen where Emerald was finishing cooking at the stove. Gold plopped down in one of the chairs, and Emerald shooed me away when I tried to help him.

"I've got it!" He exclaimed. "Just go sit! You've been working enough as it is recently."

I froze at the word work. "What time is it?" I looked up at the clock and saw that it was near ten in the morning. My eyes widening, I ran for the stairs. "I'm going to be late to the lab!"

At the table, Gold sighed. "Relax, Super Serious Gal. Today's your day off, remember?"

I stopped halfway up the stairs and slowly backtracked into the kitchen. "Huh?"

Emerald turned around from the stove. "You've been working really hard these past couple of weeks while Professor Elm was gone so he gave you a free day since he got back into town yesterday." He tilted his head. "You don't remember?"

Thinking back to last night, I realized they were right. The professor had returned right before the three of us were getting ready to head back to Gold's house since it was nearby in New Bark Town. He'd been amazed at how much data I'd gathered in his absence and told me, no, _demanded _me to take a day off and recuperate. So, the three of us had decided to spend it at my house. I glared at Gold briefly. A decision I was beginning to regret. The boys were supposed to share the guest bedroom, but apparently he'd had a different idea this morning.

Reluctantly, I sat down across from Gold who was beating the table with his fists in excitement. "I smelled pancakes, and I am ready!"

Emerald took one of the three plates off the counter and set it in front of me. "One for Crystal." He placed the other where he was going to sit. "One for me." Taking the last dish, he carefully put it before the other boy in the room with a glare. "And one for Gold."

I thanked him, and the two of us started eating while Gold stared at his plate. "Um…Emerald?"

The blonde looked up with polite eyes. "Yes?"

Gold picked up one of the burnt pancakes on his plate and banged it on the table. "I think you switched my pancakes with rocks."

Emerald smiled sweetly. "Nope! I made them _just for you_."

Gold raised an eyebrow, and after a moment, he tried biting into it. It took him a minute to crunch through, and Emerald and I started laughing as he spit it back out. "That doesn't taste like pancakes at all!"

Emerald shrugged and took a bite of his own. "Oh, well. That's what you get for messing with Crystal-chan."

I giggled, and Gold scowled just as the doorbell rang. The bright-eyed boy rose out of his chair and held his hands up to us. "Now don't trouble yourselves," he said sarcastically. "I'll get the door so you can continue laughing at me."

Emerald rolled his eyes, and I finished my last pancake as Gold disappeared out of the kitchen. I could hear him speak briefly with someone at the door before it shut and he came back. There was a box in his hands, and I raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

He scratched the back of his head. "I don't know, but it says it's from Blue."

My eyes widened. "Blue?"

He nodded and handed the box to me across the table before sitting down again. Clearing away my plate, I ripped the tape off the package and opened the flaps. As soon as I saw what was inside, though, I slammed them back shut.

Emerald's eyes widened. "What is it?"

Gold smirked. "Yeah, I'm curious now."

Tentatively reaching inside the box, I pulled out a set of clothes and handed them to Gold. There was a red jacket with black cuffs and a white hoodie that zipped, a black set of capris and an equally black T-shirt, a dark hat with a single yellow stripe down the middle, a pair of grey running shoes, a rectangular bag with a single thick strap, and a new pair of gold goggles.

"Well, Merry Christmas to me!" He said with a grin. "I can't believe Blue sent these!"

I swiftly shut the box's flaps again. "She must have gone on another one of her shopping sprees."

I was shoving the box aside when Emerald tilted his head. "Is that all that was in there?"

I nodded quickly. "O-Of course it was."

Gold's eyes narrowed, and he snatched the box away before I could say anything. I stretched out to take it back, but he danced out of his chair and out of my reach. Leaning against the kitchen's entryway, he looked inside the box and grinned. "Oh, no it wasn't."

Emerald jumped up what to see was inside, and I held my face in a hand when Gold pulled out a fluffy white hat that looked like a marshmallow with a big red bow on it. He chuckled and set in on Emerald's hair, laughing even more when it stood up on his spikey crest. Frowning, the blonde took it off and placed it on the table before using his extension arms to reach into the box for the rest of the items.

His eyes widened as he separated each article of clothing. "It looks like she sent you a new outfit, too, Crystal-chan."

I shook my head with similarly wide eyes as I took in the clothes before me. "T-That can't be mine. Blue knows I wouldn't wear something like that!"

Along with the puffy hat, my senior had sent an elbow length red shirt with a white hoodie like Gold's and a small opening in the middle of the neckline where the black tank top would show through, blue overall shorts that went over the shirt, long white socks edged in black with red shoes to go with, and a yellow bag that would hang over one's shoulder.

Gold picked up the hat again and smirked. "That's exactly why she got it for you."

I crossed my arms and turned away. "Well, I refuse to wear it!"

Emerald's eyes widened in surprise. "Why not Crystal-chan?"

Gold stuffed the hat on my head. "Yeah, why not, Crys?"

I could feel my cheeks starting to heat up. "I-It doesn't fit me!"

The goggled boy tilted his head at the clothes. "I doubt Blue would get you the wrong size; she seems to be spot on about those things. Besides, it looks like it would fit you."

"I meant the style," I told him, eyeing the outfit warily. "The style doesn't fit me."

Gold smirked and forced me out of my chair. "You never know unless you try!"

I slowly backed away from the table towards the kitchen's exit. "I'm going to go get dressed." I glared as Gold raised his eyebrows expectantly. "In my normal clothes."

Frantically, I ran upstairs and searched through my closet again. There had to be a clean pair of shorts and a shirt! I couldn't wear that outfit from Blue! Arceus knows why she even got it for me! I rummaged through all the dirty stuff lying on the floor, but to my dismay, I really did have nothing.

Racing back to the ground floor, I rushed into the laundry room and looked for the detergent. If I had enough left for another load of clothes, I'd be saved. Unscrewing the top, I hung my head when I saw that there wasn't even a capful.

"Why does the world hate me?" I sighed in despair.

Gold's head appeared around the doorway. "No clean clothes, huh?"

I laid my head on the washer. "No…"

"Or detergent?" When I shook my head, he grinned evilly. "Guess you'll just have to go to the store and buy some more. Oh wait…" He tapped his chin. "But you'll need _something_ to wear."

I growled lightly. "Just give me Blue's clothes."

He smiled cheekily and stepped into the washroom with them in his arms. I saw that he'd already changed into his own outfit, and I had to say, it suited him quite well. The puffy white hat was still on my head, and it almost fell off when he deposited the pile in my arms.

"I'll tell Emerald we're heading for the store!" He exclaimed before disappearing around the corner.

I sighed again and stared at the clothes in defeat. "Here goes nothing."

* * *

Oh. My. Mew.

I seriously wished this hat was bigger so it could hide the blush on my face.

As Gold, Emerald, and I walked through the front doors of Goldenrod's shopping mall, I would guess that practically everyone stared at me and my new clothes. They didn't gawk or anything, more of their eyes going wide and watching as I walked by. I was known fairly well thanks to the Dex Holders' events and what not, so it was no surprise that people were shocked by my new appearance.

"This is so mortifying," I muttered as we made our way to the escalator.

Gold just smirked and stepped on behind me and Emerald. The moving staircase took us up to the second floor where we quickly got off. This was the floor for basic necessity items so I knew the detergent would be somewhere here. Again, people watched me as I walked by, and after a few minutes of walking, I started heading back for the escalator.

"I'm done," I muttered. "Let's just go home."

Gold grabbed my arm and chuckled smartly as he dragged me further into the aisles. "I don't think I saw detergent in that invisible purchase bag of yours."

I glared at him and tore my wrist away. The action made him laugh a little harder, and Emerald sighed at the boy. Gold led the way down the laundry aisle, finger on his chin as he observed the variety of soap brands.

"So, uh," he said uncertainly. Grabbing a jug in each hand, he turned to me with a sweatdrop. "Do we get the one with scent pearls or the little bottle of crystals?"

I face-palmed. "Gold, those are fabric softeners."

He blinked and looked at the containers before Emerald shook his head. The blonde walked over to Gold and took them from his hands before putting them back on the shelf. "Why don't we leave the shopping to Crystal-chan?"

Gold grinned and grabbed the other boy's arm. "Sounds good! In the meantime, we can go check out the ladies!" He turned to me with a smirk. "Is that alright with you, Crys? Good! Let's go shortie!"

My jaw dropped in surprise as Emerald beat a fist against Gold's arm. "I'm not short!"

I sweat-dropped, and they had dispersed into the crowd within a few moments. Sighing, I moved a bit farther down the shelves to the detergent section. My fingers rummaged through the various brands, but I couldn't find the one I was looking for. I searched in vain a little longer but huffed angrily when I concluded that it really wasn't there.

"That's alright," I muttered under my breath. Narrowing my eyes at the shelf, I crossed my arms and bit my cheek. "I'll just choose a different one."

Humming softly to myself, I scanned what was available and eventually stopped at one that might suffice until I could find my usual brand. None of them met my standards though, and I gave up with a sigh.

"I suggest the one on the top shelf," someone suddenly said beside me. I turned to find that a guy was standing there with his arms crossed. His hair was a dark russet color poking out beneath a silver fedora, and a matching scarf was wrapped around his neck despite it being summertime. Black shades hid his eyes, and he wore a black T-shirt that seemed to shimmer lightly with the darkest shade of purple and had two white lines striped across his chest and one running down the left side of the shirt . He had on simple blue jeans, and when I tilted my head at him, his sunglasses turned in my direction. "That is if you don't already know which one you're getting."

I shook my head with a sigh. "No, the one I want isn't here for some reason."

The guy stared at me a moment before turning around and waving a hand over his shoulder. "Come with me."

Raising an eyebrow, I curiously followed the stranger as he took me through the aisles to the service counter near the elevator. I stood behind him as he talked to the lady on the other side. The woman left into a closet behind her and returned a few minutes later. Taking something from her, he turned around with a smirk on his face and the detergent I'd been trying to find in his hand.

My eyes widened. "How did you—"

He waggled a finger at me. "Always ask the assistants what's in the inventory. They just might have what you need."

I gave a small laugh and took the bottle from him. "Well, thank you very much."

He nodded. "No trouble. Just remember to check in with a lady next time instead of glaring at the helpless soap bottles."

I opened my mouth in protest. "I did not glare!"

He smirked and raised an eyebrow. "Really? 'Cause I swear they would have been running if they could've moved."

A smirk was playing on my lips as I heard shuffling and looked to my side to find Gold and Emerald approaching.

"Did you find it?" Emerald asked with his small grin.

I smiled back. "Yeah, this guy helped me out."

Emerald observed the stranger curiously while Gold's eyes narrowed a fraction and he looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "You ready to go then?"

I studied his oddly tense figure a moment before nodding slowly. "Let's head for the checkout downstairs." Turning back to the guy in the fedora, I bowed my head towards him in gratitude. "Thank you for helping me find this, Mister."

He tipped the edge of his hat. "Like I said, no trouble." He smirked and turned for the elevator. "See you around…Miss Glare."

I puffed my cheeks at that while Gold frowned and Emerald tilted his head, the guy disappearing behind the automatic doors. After watching it a moment, the dark-haired boy huffed and turned for the escalator. "Let's go."

Emerald's eyes widened at him, and I huffed at his retreating back. "Well, okay then."

It didn't take us long to check out, and soon enough we were walking out the mall's doors into the streets of Goldenrod. Gold was still grimacing to himself, and I sighed as I released Xatee. "What's the matter?"

He looked at me with wide eyes as if he hadn't known I'd been watching him and shook his head. "It's just that guy."

Emerald's eyebrows scrunched as he climbed onto Xatee's back, and I let the Pokemon latch onto my shoulders. "What about him?"

Gold held his chin in a hand. "I'm not sure…I just…there was something off about him."

"I didn't think anything was wrong," I told him.

He simply nodded and brought out his Togekiss. Once he'd climbed on his Pokemon's back, the three of us took to the sky to head back to Violet City. As we flew over the treetops, I pulled out my Pokegear from the bag Blue had gotten me (hated to admit it but it _was _useful) and checked the time. It was about mid-afternoon, and I realized it was around the time that I would normally go check on the eggs in Professor Elm's lab to see if any had hatched.

I got an overwhelming feeling of being late and had to remind myself that this was my day off. Still, I couldn't help but stare out in the direction of New Bark Town. Xatee seemed to sense my anxiety and made a detour for the small town. Emerald protested in surprise, and Gold rounded back to see what was going on.

"Hey, what are you doing?" He asked in puzzlement over the wind.

"I just want to check in on the lab real quick," I said hastily, only to be met with a pair of sighs.

"Crystal-chan, everything is alright," Emerald reassured me. "The eggs are fine, the poffins are fine, it's all okay."

"Yeah," Gold said with a grin. "Old Elm can take care of himself for one day. You've been working way too much lately so let off a bit."

I bit my lip and glanced to the east again. "Just five minutes? Please?"

They sighed again, and Emerald frowned gently. "Okay, but only five minutes. Any longer and we won't be able to get you to come home for the rest of the day."

I smiled gratefully, and we changed course for Gold's hometown. After flying for a while longer, the windmill outside Professor Elm's lab came into view, and it wasn't long before the rest of the town was in sight as well. The three of us touched down in front of the research facility, and once our Pokemon were back in their Pokeballs, we opened the doors to head inside. Almost immediately, we were met by the professor himself who was running around the lobby calling for the assistant who was normally there every day. He saw us and broke into a smile as we walked in.

"Ah, Crystal!" He said cheerfully. Then his mood turned suspicious. "Didn't I tell you to take a break and have the day off?"

I rubbed my arm sheepishly. "Y-Yes. I really couldn't help but come check in, though."

Professor Elm raised an eyebrow questioningly, and Gold smirked. "You know, Crys. Work addict."

I spun around with a glare. "I am _not _addicted to my work!" I turned to Emerald to back me up. "Right?!"

The blonde glanced helplessly between me and Gold before looking away whistling. My jaw dropped open, and Gold laughed at my expression. Professor Elm smiled at him a moment before holding up a finger. "That's right. I'm actually glad you guys stopped by. There's been someone calling for you."

I tilted my head. "Who is it?"

The brown-haired man scratched the back of his head. "Hm, if I remember right, I think her name was…Blue?"

My eyes widened as Gold's laughter stopped abruptly. Emerald turned to the professor with a frown. "When did she call?"

"Actually, she's rang up the video phone every few hours hoping you'd be here," Elm explained. "It's been a while since she last called. She might do it again here sometime soon."

I started running for the video phone that was in one of the back rooms. It was the one where we'd tried to lock Gold up from DJ Mary when she'd stopped by to make Poffins. The door was unlocked, and I dashed up to the keyboard to check the phone's history. Just like the professor had said, it showed that there'd been at least five calls from Kanto. I tilted my head when I saw that they'd come from Blaine but shook the thought away as Gold and Emerald came up behind me.

"Blaine?" Gold asked with a frown. "Did they all have to relocate since we last talked to them? That was only about a week ago."

"A lot can happen in a week," Emerald pointed out.

"I guess they had to hide at Cinnabar Island," I murmured to myself with a chin on my hand.

A moment later something started blinking on the monitor, and the boys and I leaned forward to see that it was a call from Blaine's number. I hit the answer button, and our eyes widened as we saw Blue's anxious face appear.

"Crystal!" She sighed in relief. "I've been trying to get ahold of you all day! You have no idea!"

I held my hands up. "Okay, okay, what's wrong, Blue?" My eyebrows scrunched as I saw that she was the only one in the room. "Where's everybody else?"

Blue frowned slightly. "Silver and Green are running a scan, and Red's guarding Amber."

The name rang a bell, and Gold leaned forward with a frown. "Amber? As in..."

"Yes," Blue nodded her head, "as in Red's brother, Amber."

Emerald waved his hands. "Woah, woah, woah. If Amber's with you guys, then where's Yellow?"

Blue bit her lip. "Well, you see, it seems that we've had a little unwanted exchange recently."

"Wait a second," I said slowly. My eyes widened. "Yellow's gone?!"

* * *

Me: And so begins another exciting adventure!

Gardevoir: *watches from between fingers covering eyes* Let's get through this one first!

Me: Okay...just turn down this lane and we're home- *hits someone*

Gardevoir & Me: O_O *look at each other and jump out of the car*

Me: *helps person up* Oh my Mew! I'm so sorry! *eyes widen* Max?

Max: *coughs* Maybe it's a bad idea for me to try to visit once in a while...

Gardevoir: *facepalm* Nice going. You hit your best friend

Me: TT . TT I'm so sorry Maxy

Max: *chuckles nervously* It's all good. I'm fine! *looks at car and sweatdrops* Now all we have to do is get home.

Me: *grabs keys* I'LL DRIVE!

Gardevoir & Max: *facepalm*

Me: So everyone? How was this opening? Strangely, I found it difficult to switch over to Crystal and Gold's point of view, but hopefully you all liked it! Review and return!


	2. Chapter 2: In the Rain Shadow

Me: *eating a piece of cake* It's time to celebrate!

Max: *also eating a piece of cake* Oh yeah! Didn't you first become a Fanfic member a year ago yesterday?

Gardevoir: *glaring at a piece of cake* Yeah. That's when it ALL began...

Me: *sadface* Why do you make that sound like it's a bad thing?

Gardevoir: *raises an eyebrow* That's my job.

Me: *pouts and eats a bite of cake*

Max: Come on! This is a time to be happy! *grabs giant present* I even got you something!

Me: *perks up* What is it?! *tears off paper*

Carlos: *pops out* I. AM. IRONMAN!

Me: *shrieks and passes out*

Gardevoir: *knuckle bumps Carlos* Best present ever!

Carlos: *nods* Always.

Max: *sweatdrop* **Disclaimer: Eon doesn't own Pokemon. Maybe if she did, she'd be happy enough to wake up...**

* * *

Chapter Two: Crystal

Blue hung her head. "Yeah, Melany took her last night."

Gold shook his head. "Melany?"

The brunette nodded. "She's a member of Team Rocket like Amber was."

My eyes widened. "Team Rocket?"

Emerald narrowed his. "_Was_?"

Blue sighed and held her hands up. "Alright let me explain. The strange people that have been coming after Yellow are part of a new Team Rocket. Amber was a member along with his coworker Melany until she left him with us last night while kidnapping Yellow. After talking to him a bit, we found out that he's no longer working for Team Rocket."

"Or so he says," Green suddenly said, appearing beside her on the video screen.

I covered my mouth in surprise when I saw that his left arm was in a sling. "Arceus, what happened, Green?"

He rolled his eyes. "I got hurt."

I sweat-dropped. "But what were you doing?"

Blue smirked and winked at him. "Saving me."

The brunette boy blushed with a grimace, and Gold smirked at him. "Yo, Green. You're blushing."

His senior growled. "Shut up, Gold."

The Hatcher snickered, and Blue turned to Green with a raised eyebrow. "Is the scanning done already?"

He shook his head. "It's going to take much longer than we expected. The range of the tracker isn't large enough to encompass the entire region so Silver's trying to manipulate the disc's features to do so."

Blue sighed softly, and Emerald tilted his head. "Disc?"

Green nodded. "The admins of Team Rocket now carry a white-threaded necklace with a dark pendant sporting a red TR. Each pendant is equipped with a tracking disc that allows its holder to know where his or her grunts are along with other admins and grunts."

"Amber had one and told us about that feature," Blue explained further. "He suggested that we check the tracker to see if we could find Yellow."

"So he's working with you guys to find her?" Gold asked dubiously.

Blue frowned unsurely. "Sort of. The guys refuse to let Amber out of the room we have him in so all he's been able to do is open his pendent to get us the disc and explain how to utilize it." She glared at Green. "He told us the story behind why he was even mixed up with Team Rocket, but the guys refuse to believe him."

Green glared back. "It's impossible to believe his story after everything he's done."

"Yellow did," Blue said quietly.

The conversation died instantly at that.

"So…" I mumbled, trying to change the subject. "Where're Black and White?"

"At the Seafoam Islands where Melany took Yellow last night," Green said flatly. "They're trying to see if they can get any leads on where she went."

The mention of Yellow didn't help the silence at all.

"Anyways…" Blue said uneasily. "I've been trying to contact you guys for the past few hours. Can you do something for me?"

I nodded. "What is it?"

"I'd like for you guys to meet Silver in Olivine City," she asked with a plea in her eyes. "As far as we know, Melany fled to Johto, or at least that's the direction Amber saw her go. We've been to practically every city in Kanto so far, so we've all decided that Johto is our best bet to look."

Gold's eyes lit up. "Silvy's coming?!"

Blue sweat-dropped. "Yes, Gold. Green and I are going to continue to expand the scanner so we can confirm if they are, for sure, in Johto. Black and White will most likely help us and Red to watch out for Professor Oak. He's coming back from Unova any day now, and we'll be able to get further with the disc once he arrives."

"So what are we supposed to do once Silver gets here?" Emerald asked in confusion.

Green left a moment and came back with a calendar in his hand. "Today's Tuesday, and the ferry in Vermillion doesn't depart until tomorrow which gives you enough time to make it to Olivine City. I'd say it'll take you guys a day to two to fly there since it's on the other side of the region. But once you meet up with Silver, just hold on for a while until we can figure out the scanner. Then we'll start making plans on what to do next. With any luck, Melany _will _be in Johto, and then we'll be able to do something about it."

Blue nodded and looked to me. "Could you do this for us please, Crystal?"

My eyes widened. "Of course! What's most important right now is that we get Yellow back."

Blue sighed gratefully. "Thank you so much."

I waved at her. "We'll be off here soon. Just hang in there."

Blue smiled sadly. "We'll try. Once we've got more information, we'll send it to you guys."

I nodded once, and she cut off the call. Turning to Emerald and Gold, I frowned slightly. "Okay, so here's the plan. We leave tomorrow and head for Olivine to meet Silver. From there, we await further instructions from the seniors."

Gold nodded, his face solemn for once. Emerald bit his lip and looked out the window at the gathering storm clouds. "I hope Yellow's okay."

I glanced in the same direction and sighed. "Me too."

Gold

Those clouds from before were only a forewarning to the raging storm that hit that night. Sometime in the ungodly hours of the morning, there was a crash of thunder that made me bolt right up. Emerald stirred slightly on the bed in Crystal's guest room, and I glowered at the rain from my spot on the window seat. It was just big enough to be comfortable so that's where I ended up sleeping. A flash of lightning went off again, and I groaned, shoving a pillow into my face.

"Stupid storm," I muttered through the fluffiness. "Shut up!"

The responding boom from outside seemed to mock me, and I glared at the window. Sighing, I threw down the pillow and quietly got up so I wouldn't disturb Emerald. Trudging down the stairs, I slowly shuffled to the kitchen and opened the fridge.

"People say milk puts you to sleep…" I mumbled to myself. Seeing the jug, I grabbed it and poured myself a glass. I downed it in an instant, slowly putting the cup down and waiting for the effect to kick in. It wasn't until five minutes later when nothing had happened that I sighed and face-palmed. "_Warm_ milk."

I poured some more into my cup and put the jug away. Staring at the milk, I raised an eyebrow with narrowed eyes. "Now. How do I make you warm?"

I eyed the stove but instantly denied it when I remembered the time I almost burnt my finger trying to use one of those things. Shaking my head, I saw the microwave above it and trotted over. I pulled on the handle and clumsily placed the glass inside before hitting the 30 second button. When the bell went off, I took it back out and shut the little door.

"Okay," I said to the glass as I gradually walked to the living room. "Let's see if you really work." I raised the cup to my mouth and did a spit take almost as soon as I took a drink. "Arceus, how does that put anyone to sleep?!"

I put down the glass and started running my hands over my tongue to get rid of the taste. Another flash of lightning went off, and I gradually stopped as I looked out the window and saw a figure sitting on the porch. Tilting my head, I headed for the front door and silently opened it to find that the figure was actually Crystal, the girl sitting cross-legged and watching the storm with wide eyes.

Shutting the door behind me, I snuck up behind her and leaned over her shoulders with my hands behind my back. "Couldn't sleep either?"

She gasped lightly and whipped around to glare at me. "Gold! Can't you go a whole day without scaring me?!"

I smirked and sat down beside her. "You're the one who's so easily scared."

She narrowed her eyes but went back to staring at the dancing clouds in the sky. I noticed her unusually tense stature and tilted my head. "You alright?"

She crossed her arms over her knees and set her head on them. "I'm just worried about Yellow-san. I mean, of all people, why would Team Rocket want to kidnap her? I just can't figure it out. It's not like she's done anything that calls for revenge or something along those lines."

The rain started coming down a little harder, and I leaned back on my arms. "Hm, well maybe it's not something that she's done. Maybe she has something that they want."

Crystal tilted her head. "Like what?"

I shrugged. "I don't know. That's something to ask them."

She rolled her eyes, and I looked over at her as she sighed softly. "I just hope we can find her."

I blinked as her eyes closed and smirked to myself as she started breathing softly. Going in the house a moment, I came back out with a couple blankets and threw one over her shoulders. "Super Serious Gal, you have _got _to stop worrying yourself to sleep."

She didn't answer me, though; she'd already passed out. Wrapping the other blanket around myself, I settled down beside her and leaned my back against the wall of the house. The thunder and lightning were starting to settle down a bit, the patter of the rain on the ground beginning to echo through the air. My eyes closed on their own, and before I knew it, I'd finally found my way back to sleep.

* * *

"I have received intelligence that there are three of the Dex Holders residing in Johto at this moment," the dark man said nonchalantly, "and that a fourth will be joining them soon."

"S0 what do we do?" Asked one of the two people behind him. "Eliminate them?"

The dark man laughed. "You say that as if it were easy, Drake."

The redhead shrugged. "They're just a bunch of kids."

"Oh, they're more than just kids," the girl beside him said quietly.

The dark man stood up from his chair and faced her. "You're quite right, Melany." He silently strode over to her and held his chin in a hand. "And you have spent the most time dealing with them. What do you suggest we do?"

She blinked slowly and looked down. "Nothing."

His eyes widened. "_Nothing_?"

She nodded. "They have practically no leads on our location so why do anything?"

Drake's eyes narrowed. "So what happens when they start snooping around for us?"

Melany turned to him with similar eyes. "Well, if we try to stop them, then that just proves to them that we are, in fact, in this area. What better way to alert them then to reveal ourselves?"

The dark man nodded slowly. "Makes sense."

Drake cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "Fine then. What if we hinder their means of searching without revealing ourselves?"

Melany scoffed. "And how are we supposed to do that?"

Drake smirked, grabbing the sunglasses that were hanging from his shirt and sliding them on his face. "By being sneaky of course."

Crystal

I had no idea what time it was when I finally forced my eyes open. The sky was covered in a gray blanket of clouds left over from the storm last night, and a chill blew gently through the air. I subconsciously pulled my blanket tighter before stopping in surprise.

"When did I get a blanket?" I muttered.

I felt something shift beneath my head and turned with wide eyes to see that I was using Gold's arm as a pillow. He was still asleep, his head leaning against the house lazily, and I jerked away quickly. Gold stirred slightly, and I managed to force down the blush on my face as he came to.

"Morning, Crys," he said with a yawn. "What time is it?"

I shrugged, hiding my face. "I don't know. Let's go check inside."

He watched me curiously as I stood up and hugged the blanket around my head. Getting up himself, he followed me inside where Emerald was already eating cereal at the table.

"Well, finally!" He exclaimed. "It's almost ten! I was wondering when you were going to wake up!" His eyes narrowed at Gold. "Why were you guys sleeping on the porch?"

The raven-haired boy sighed and knocked Emerald lightly upon the head. "Oh calm down, Shorty. We were watching the storm and fell asleep."

"Hm," Emerald hummed lowly before nodding.

Gold stalked over to the cupboard, pulling out two bowls while I grabbed the cereal. We joined Emerald at the table and hastily ate before running upstairs to change. The quicker we left for Olivine, the more time we'd have to get there. A half hour later, Emerald and I were waiting at the front door as Gold shuffled around upstairs.

I huffed and readjusted my packed shoulder bag. "Gold! We don't have all day!"

"I know! I know!" He yelled from the upper floor. A minute later, he was rushing down the stairs and out the door ahead of us. "I'm ready!"

Emerald and I sighed before following him outside. I noted that the clouds had grown darker and nervously released Xatee. "I hope it doesn't storm again…"

Emerald tilted his head at me. "Did you say something, Crystal-chan?"

I shook my head quickly and smiled. "Oh it was nothing!"

He smiled back and climbed on Xatee's back. "Okay, let's go then!"

My Pokemon flapped its wings and grabbed onto my shoulders before gaining more altitude. Gold was already flying off on his Togekiss, and Xatee quickly flew after them.

We immediately set out for the west, deciding to head for Goldenrod City where we'd most likely stay for the night. Tomorrow we'd straighten out to the north and fly straight to Olivine where Silver would hopefully be arriving on the S.S. Anne.

I stiffened as there was a slight rumble from the clouds above. Looking over to Gold who was flying beside us, I cupped my hands over my mouth. "Maybe we should wait until tomorrow!"

He turned his goggled eyes to me and smirked. "It's just a little thunder, Super Serious Gal. There can't be that much of a storm left after it raged so much last night."

I bit my lip and looked at the clouds again. "B-But—"

"Don't worry about it!" He said cheerfully. "Just think about seeing Silver! It's been at least a good month since the reunion!"

I nodded slowly, still watching the churning sky. A few hours slipped by, and we found ourselves halfway to Goldenrod City, passing over the enigmatic Ruins of Alph. The sky had only gotten darker, and the sounds of thunder had grown with each mile we flew on. We were just making our way past the north end of the ruins when the first flash of lightning struck a couple hundred feet in front of us.

Emerald let out a cry, and I turned to Gold again. "We needto land!"

He nodded, and Togetaro suddenly veered to the right to avoid another strike of lightning. The wind began to pick up, and I blinked in surprise as a few raindrops hit me in the face. Within seconds, a downpour had started, and the world was blurred by a sheet of gray.

I craned my neck up to look past Xatee. "Emerald! You okay up there?"

My eyes could just barely make him out as he nodded. "I'm good!"

I sighed in relief and searched the sky for our final trio member. "Gold!"

At that moment, a lightning bolt flashed not even twenty feet before us. The pulsing energy disoriented Xatee, and my eyes widened as I felt her claws release my shoulders. My voice was lost in my throat as I plummeted through the air towards the rain-sodden ground. I managed to get out a scream just as I crashed into something soft. Lifting my head, I saw Gold holding me onto the back of Togetaro.

"Help me out, Crys!" He told me, struggling to get the rest of my form onto his Pokemon.

Scrambling the rest of the way on, I clutched his arm as I settled in behind him. He noticed my terror-stricken form and squeezed my hand in reassurance. "It's okay, Crys. We're going to be fine."

I didn't even have time to nod before another round of lightning caused Togetaro to swerve again, this time making him lose his balance and fly head on towards the ground. I clutched Gold's arm tighter, and he wrapped himself around my head as we crash landed. We were jarred around left and right, tumbling upside down a few times, before finally coming to a stop in a small field of tall grass. Natus and Smeargles were running for shelter all around us, and Gold slowly released me as the wind whipped the rain in our faces.

"Come on!" He yelled over the gales in our ears. Returning his Togekiss, he pointed off into the distance. "I think I see a cave over there!"

I followed his finger but couldn't find anything in the gloom of the storm. Regardless, I felt Gold grab my hand and drag me in that direction. We staggered through the wind, Gold holding his arm above his face to fight against it. After what felt like an eternity of resistance, we finally stumbled into the opening of the cave and almost collapsed onto the ground.

"I-I think we're okay now," Gold panted as he got his breath back. "We'll just wait the storm out."

I froze when I realized it was just the two of us and raced for the entrance. "Emerald!"

Gold pulled me back just before I stepped into the rain. "Crys, don't! You could get hurt!" He made me sit down farther in the cave and released Explotaro. "Look, you stay here and warm up. I'll go look for him."

"Gold!" I protested, but he had already run out into the storm. I groaned in frustration and threw my bag down beside Explotaro. The Fire type watched in confusion as I raced after him.

I was already sopping wet so the rain didn't help any as I fought to find Gold and, possibly, Emerald. I called out their names, but the only thing that answered was the whine of the wind. The cold starting to get to me, I turned around to go back only to realize that I had no idea where I was. The rain created a landscape of featureless gray, and I couldn't tell from which direction I'd come. I whipped around in confusion, tripping on a rock and falling to the ground. The chill of the storm was beginning to seep into my bones, and I struggled in fear to stand up. However, my muscles wouldn't obey, and I could only lie there, soaking up more rain than I wished.

My fingers curled as the rain pressed on harder. My body was way too cold to move, and I fought to keep my eyes open.

_Come on, Crystal, _I told myself. _You can NOT go to sleep now!_

"Crys!"

I thought I heard a voice and strained to lift my head. "…Gold?"

A face suddenly materialized from the rain, and I blinked slowly as I found that it was him, his eyes wide as he took in my state.

"What are you…didn't I tell you to wait at the cave?!" He yelled fearfully. Gently grabbing my hand, he helped me to my feet and wrapped an arm over my shoulder, practically carrying all my weight as we trudged back to the cave. Once we made it back, he softly set me against the rock wall and motioned his Typhlosion over. The Pokemon settled down around me, and I shivered as Gold sat beside me and shoved his goggles off his eyes. "What were you doing?!"

"W-Was…looking f-for…E-Emerald…" I shivered softly.

"I told you _I _was!" He exclaimed. I only shivered more, and he sighed. "Listen to me next time, 'kay?"

I nodded slightly, leaning into Explotaro's soft fur. My clothes were completely soaked through, but as time went by, the Pokemon's heat slowly brought some warmth back into my body. I didn't realize that I had dozed off until I opened my eyes a little later and saw that Gold was walking around exploring the cavern, his form just visible from the flames on Explotaro's back. At one point he stopped and turned to look at me.

"Oh, you're awake, Crys," he said in a relieved tone. "I didn't get quite as cold as you so I thought I'd look around."

I coughed a little, my voice raspy as I said, "But aren't you soaked from the rain?"

He waved a hand and turned back to what he was looking at. "I'll survive. Besides, I found this neat little puzzle."

I struggled to stand up, Explotaro helping me walk once I had done so. Heading over to Gold, I saw that he was standing at a podium with a little match up puzzle that had about sixteen or so pieces that formed a picture. Assuring the Typhlosion that I was fine, I left him at Gold's side to stand on the other side of the podium across from him.

I tilted my head at the picture. "It kind of looks like…"

Gold's eyes widened. "Ho-Oh." I nodded, and he spotted a stray puzzle piece lying off to the side. "Hey, it looks like this one got left out."

Picking up the square fragment, he slid it into place in the picture. Both of us froze as the room started to rumble, and all of a sudden, the floor beneath Gold and Explotaro disappeared. The boy gave out a cry as he and his Pokemon went tumbling through the hole to whatever lie beneath. I called out his name and rushed around to look down at where they'd fallen through.

"Gold!" I heard a thump and saw the light from Explotaro's back as the Pokemon raced over to his trainer on a floor far below me. "Are you alright?!"

There was a brief sound of shuffling. "Yeah, I'm fine, Crys. That fall is a lot farther than it looks, though."

I shivered a little through my still-somewhat-drenched clothes. "Can you get up?"

More shuffling could be heard but this time ended in a cry. "I…I think there's something wrong with my leg."

My eyes widened, and I ran across the cave to my bag to retrieve Arckee's Pokeball. Racing back to the hole before the podium, I released him and slowly climbed on his back. "Okay, let's go join Gold!"

He barked once and jumped down the hole. Gold had been right about how deep the drop was, and Arckee almost toppled over when we finally touched down a few seconds later. Climbing off his back, I went over to Gold who was sitting on the ground with his back supported by Explotaro.

"What happened?" I asked worriedly.

He stiffened as I touched his right knee. "I think it might be sprained."

I nodded with a shiver and stood back up. "I'll get Parasee to make a painkiller for you." I was turning around to go back the way I came before realizing that it was a good fifty feet above us. "Oh. Right…"

Gold smirked through his pain. "You left your Pokeballs up top didn't you?"

I sighed softly which turned into a cough. "I have an idea, though. Arckee." The Arcanine came to my side, and I got back on him. "Jump off the wall and use Extremespeed to see if we can reach the opening."

He nodded once and instantly ran for the wall beside us. Bouncing off it in the opposite direction, he used the force of his push as a catalyst for the Extremespeed that launched us up into the air. The sounds of the storm soon reached us, and I could just make out the rain pounding outside the entrance to the cave before Arckee started falling and my eyesight fell back beneath the hole. We had another rough landing before I frowned determinedly.

"Alright, do it again," I told Arckee, "but this time, reach out your paws and grab the edge. We were just close enough to touch the outer edge of the hole."

Gold watched in pain as my Arcanine repeated the same process and got us going towards the whole again. He reached out his forepaws and managed to latch onto the edge of the opening to the upper floor. I carefully jumped off his back and unsteadily landed with my arms held out for balance. He let go of the hole, and I watched as he used a Flamethrower to ease his descent back to Gold.

"Be ready to catch me when I come back!" I told him.

He barked back, and I set off to retrieve my bag. The chill was starting to set into my muscles again, and I found myself beginning to progress slower. Forcing my legs to move, I finally made it over to my sodden sack and strapped it over my shoulder. I was about to head back when something zoomed by ahead and threw me back on my bottom. Rubbing my aching head, I glanced up to identify the cause. However, I was only thrown back further by another sudden gust.

"Who's there?" I called out with a cough.

I got no answer, only the sound of clacking on the stone floor. It gradually got closer to the point that I could make out a figure in the darkness of the cave. Pulling out a Pokeball for defense, I pressed the button and released my Hitmonchan. The figure stopped moving, and I squinted my eyes in the gloom to see what it was.

"A Skarmory?" I rasped.

My voice made it screech, and the foe Pokemon came at me with an X-Scissor attack.

"Hitmonee!" I yelled. "Use Brick Break!"

His star-stickered gloves shot out to stop the enemy and deal enough damage to make it fall back a step. It must have been smart, though, for it sensed that Hitmonee was a Fighting type and flew to the top of the cave in a Fly attack. It was beginning to descend, aimed for me and my Pokemon, when it was intercepted by one of Hitmonee's Sky Uppercuts. It knocked the Skarmory into the ceiling, dealing even more damage before both of them fell back to the floor.

I tried getting back to my feet, but it was getting seriously cold again, and I only made it to my knees before falling over on my side. Hitmonee gave me a concerned glance until he had to turn back to the Skarmory. As he hit it dead on with a Fire Punch, I curled up into a ball, shivering even harder as another cold wind rolled in from the storm. Apparently my little nap with Explotaro hadn't been enough to completely warm me back up.

"Crys!" I heard Gold shouting from under the hole. "Are you okay? What's going on?!"

I was colder than when I was lying outside so I wasn't able to answer like last time. That only seemed to make him more frantic as he started calling my name more and more. Everything was slowly becoming fainter and fainter around me, and I was starting to fall victim to tunnel vision. All I could see was Hitmonee fighting against the Skarmory and the podium Gold and Explotaro fell through. The same hole that he came stumbling out of on Togetaro's back at that moment. He returned his injured Pokemon and quickly looked around for me. When he saw my fallen form, his eyes widened, and he struggled to make his way towards me.

However, halfway through his path, something hit him across the head, and he fell to the ground unconscious. I lifted my own head, just barely, in surprise at his passed-out form. A second later, there was a cry, and I slowly turned my head to find that the Skarmory was standing over a fainted Hitmonee.

Not wanting him to catch hypothermia as well, I used the last of my strength to return him to his Pokeball before succumbing to the cold. The hollow sound of my breath was almost audible as the rain was beginning to let up. The only thing that drowned it out was the echo of footsteps from within the cave.

I tried to make my eyes stay open, but the cold was forcing them shut. They closed with an air of finality, and I could just hear a Pokemon being returned to a Pokeball. Sleep was dancing on the edge of my consciousness like the storm clouds outside, muffling the sound of someone approaching.

The darkness finally took hold of my mind, and I was too weak to resist it. All my systems were beginning to shut down, and just before I completely blacked out, I heard one strangely familiar voice in my ear.

"Sweet dreams, Miss Glare."

* * *

Me: *finally wakes up* Wha...?

Carlos: *blinks innocently* Didja miss me?

Me: *glares* Where did you even come from?!

Carlos: *smiles and points at Gardevoir* She figured out how to teleport me here!

Me: *sweatdrop* At least he wasn't wearing a pink robe this time.

Max: Eh?

Gardevoir: *laughs* Ah, what you guys miss...

Carlos: *eats a cupcake* Well, we're here to stay now!

Max: *widens eyes* We are?

Carlos: *smiles wide* Why not?!

Gardevoir & Me: *sweatdrop* This outta be interesting.

Me: *starts getting sleepy* Well readers, I hope you enjoyed the chapter. *yawn* Basically a major case of hypothermia. _Not good. _But it's only the second chapter! I couldn't possible kill of Crystal? ...Right? *feeling evil before yawning again* I think I should head off. It _is _about midnight...

XD Review and return!


	3. Chapter 3: Enter Everyone Else

Me: *dressed up like Blue* Eh, eh? So how does it look?

Max: *blinks* You look just like her actually.

Carlos: Ya! You can totally pull it off!

Gardevoir: Remind again what's going on.

Me: See, I'm going to this anime con this weekend and Blue is one of my cosplays! Not to mention, I thought a Pokemon outfit would be appropriate for the occasion.

Gardevoir: *rolls eyes* How so?

Me: *determined face* There's a battle tournament at the con, and the prize is a prepaid Pokemon X & Y version. I've been training hard over the past few weeks and I'm gonna try my best to win the game!

Max: *sweatdrop* Oh dear.

Carlos: **Disclaimer: Eon owns Pokemon in no way. Amber, Melany, Drake, and the plot are her only possessions. **

* * *

Chapter Three: Gold

_I blinked my eyes open and found myself standing in the middle of Goldenrod City. There was no one else out on the streets, and the lamplights illuminated the darkness of twilight. Raising an eyebrow at the odd scenery, I pivoted on my heel to look around. Behind me was the Goldenrod Department Store, its front doors open as if inviting me in. The only thing holding me back was the eerie feeling the glow of the lamplights gave them. _

_Taking a step back from the doors, it was then that I remembered that Crystal was being attacked by someone. _

"_Crys!" I yelled out into the lonely streets. The only answer was the echo of my voice, but I knew she had to be here somewhere. "Where are you?!"_

_There was a sudden sound of footsteps, and I whipped back around to the department store to see a puffy white hat disappearing into the darkness of the doors. _

"_Crys!" I yelled, running in after her. _

_The light from the street lamps faded as I entered the doors which slammed behind me ominously once I had passed through. I turned in surprise only to find that they were no longer there, replaced by a solid stone wall. _

_Raising an eyebrow, I went back to my original path, carefully walking down the gloomy passage. It wasn't completely dark, but it was very hard to see anything five feet ahead of me due to a weird fog. I felt on my sides for the walls but strangely could not find them. After a few minutes of struggling through the murk, I paused when I heard someone quickly approaching from ahead. _

"_Hello?" I called out uncertainly. _

_Suddenly, Emerald came sprinting out of the fog, his eyes fearful. He ran right past my form as if he couldn't see me. "Where are you?!"_

"_Emerald, I'm right here!" I yelled at him as he disappeared into the darkness behind me. _

_Shaking my head, I was about to go after him when someone else stumbled out of the fog. My eyes widened as I saw that it was Silver, his gaze annoyed as he leaned against some unseen wall. _

_He sighed angrily. "Where is that idiot?"_

_I ran up to him and waved a hand in front of his face. "Hey! Yo, Silver! Can't you see that I'm standing right here?!"_

_He scoffed to himself, completely oblivious to my frantic gestures. "I wonder where he got to this time."_

_My jaw dropped in disbelief as he shook his head and dissipated into the fog. "What's going on?"_

"_Gold!"_

_I jerked to the right as I heard Crystal's voice. It was coming from somewhere in the depths of the darkness, and I ran head on into it. I don't know how long or far I'd run when I randomly tripped on something. Picking myself up from that rather ungraceful faceplant, I lifted my head just as a streak of silver shot past in front of me. I raised an eyebrow and tried to find it, but the weird object had merged into the fog around me. _

_Instead, I saw Crystal wandering around in the darkness and hugging her arms like she was cold. Her teeth were chattering, and my eyes widened as I started running for her. I would've gone right up to her had it not been for the chasm that suddenly appeared in the ground in front of me. I barely managed to skid to a stop before falling in, my arms wheeling as I fought to find my balance. _

_Crystal was still aimlessly walking around, appearing as though she was getting colder. _

"_Crys!" I yelled at her. _

_Her eyes found mine in the dark. "Gold? Is that you?"_

_She started running for me, not seeing the giant crevice. I waved my arms at her just as she reached it. "Stop! Can't you see there's a giant hole there?!"_

_She sweat-dropped. "No. If you couldn't tell, it's extremely dark here."_

_I chuckled inwardly. Even in a dream, Crys was Crys._

"_Okay," I told her. "Let me see if there's a bridge or something that'll let me over."_

_She tilted her head. "Why don't you just use Togetaro?"_

_I reached a hand for my Pokeballs and sighed. "Because he's not in this wackjob dream."_

_Crystal face-palmed. "Well that's convenient."_

_I held up my hands. "Just give a minute. I'll figure it out."_

_She sighed. "Okay, but for some reason it's getting really cold."_

_I nodded in agreement, noting the growing chill. I was trying to think of another way across the chasm when the silver streak from before suddenly shot out of it and coiled around Crystal's ankle. _

_My eyes widened as it tightened and started pulling her towards the chasm. "Watch out!"_

_She let out a cry and tried taking a step back. The only thing that did was make her trip and fall down, all the more easier for the streak to pull her in. There was nothing for her to hold onto, so she had no way of fighting against it. I frantically searched for anything that could be of assistance but could only watch as she was dragged over the edge. Her screams echoed down the long fall, growing gradually softer until disappearing all together. _

_My mouth struggled to form words. "C-Crys!"_

_My voice triggered the silver streak again which took hold of my ankle instead this time. I gritted my teeth and pulled back. That only seemed to make it mad as it started pulling harder. I fought to free my foot, but the streak was absurdly strong. It tugged again, making me pitch forward. Before I could correct my balance, it pulled once more and sent me tumbling into the mouth of the chasm. _

_I cried out as the free-falling began. It seemed to last longer than I'd initially thought, and when I opened my eyes, I was surprised to find out that I had caught up to Crystal. She was curled up in a ball, eyes shut tight as she fell. She was shivering even harder, and my blood ran cold as the silver streak snuck up from her ankle to her throat. _

_I tried to warn her, but my voice was lost in the rushing wind. The streak wrapped itself around her neck, and my fear rose as it gradually started growing tighter. Crystal didn't even notice it because she was so cold, and terror struck me hard as she started turning blue. It was then that her eyes opened in fear, and I tried calling out her name again. _

_She looked at me once more before her eyes shut slowly, and mine widened just as I finally crashed into the ground and blacked out._

* * *

"Crys!"

My heart was beating out of my chest as I shot up panting. I frantically scanned the hospital room I was in, landing on a pair of silver eyes that were watching me with the slightest hint of anxiety.

"You okay there?" Silver asked hesitantly.

My eyes widened, and I grinned. "Silvy!"

He rolled his eyes. "You're fine."

"What are you doing here?" I asked in what a lot of people would say was my happy voice. Then the meaning of that sentence sunk in, and my eyebrows scrunched. "Wait, what are you doing here?!"

He pulled a ticket for the S.S. Anne out of his pocket and frowned. "Well, Blue told me you guys were going to pick me up in Olivine City. I waited, but you didn't show up." His eyes narrowed slightly. "That's when I got a call from a foreign number. It was Emerald."

I sighed in relief. "Emerald's okay?"

Silver nodded. "But you and Crystal weren't."

My eyes widened again, and I made a move to get up. However, there was a pain in my knee that made me stop and clench my teeth. I looked down to see that a black brace was locked around my left leg beneath the black material of my capris. "What happened?"

"According to the doctors, you bruised your knee a little," Silver said flatly. "It's not too bad, but you'll have to be easy on it for the next week or so. They put a brace on just to be safe."

I nodded and gently put pressure on it, smiling in satisfaction when the small pain was easy enough for me to handle. "Well, it sure hurt a lot at first. I thought it was at least sprained."

Silver's eyes narrowed. "That's because the cold was getting to you."

I looked to the door and started walking. "Cold…Crys. Where is she?"

Silver watched to make sure I could move around fine. "In another room. Someone else is watching her at the moment."

I tilted my head and opened the door. "Emerald?"

Silver shook his head and glowered. "Someone who tagged along with me from Olivine City."

I looked at him curiously, but he left it at that. We made our way down the hall, and I was happy to find that Silver was right. I could still walk; the injury wasn't bad enough to worry about that. It just flared up a little when I bent my knee, but I could deal with that much. Anyways, I didn't really care at the moment; I just wanted to make sure Crystal was okay.

Silver led the way, stopping us at the far end of the hall. He opened the door on our left, and I quickly barged in after him. Despite what he'd said before, there was no one else in the room besides Crystal who was lying asleep in her bed.

Silver's eyes narrowed, and he turned for the door. "I'll be right back. She was here when I left…."

"Who?" I asked, but he had already walked back out into the hallway. Rolling my eyes at him, I maneuvered around the edge of the bed and sat down in one of the chairs to take in Crystal's state. She was breathing softly so I knew she was alright, but her face was twisted up slightly as if she were having a nightmare. My theory was only proven correct as she started fidgeting and her eyes squinted.

"Let me go," she growled softly. I raised an eyebrow when her fists clenched the sheets. All the tension suddenly left in the next instant, and my eyes widened as her mouth dropped open a fraction. "Gold…no!"

Her shriek shocked me for a moment before I jumped up and grabbed her shoulder. "Crys!" She continued tossing and turning, and I eventually had to shake bother her shoulders. "Wake up!"

"Gold!"

Her eyes shot open a second after she yelled that, staring at me in fear before blinking and realizing she was awake. Then she noticed how close I was to her and promptly shoved me away. "Arceus, why are you always so close to me whenever I wake up?!"

I stared at her rosy cheeks and sat back in my chair. "You were having a nightmare so I tried to snap you out of it."

She nodded slowly and leaned back against her pillow. "Sorry, I don't normally get those."

I scoffed. "Yeah, me neither."

She raised an eyebrow. "You had one, too?"

I nodded. "I was in this weird dark place with a lot of fog. Couldn't see anything worth crap. Then Silver and Emerald randomly ran through like they couldn't see me, and you were wandering on the other side of this big crack in the ground."

She tilted her head. "Did we fall into the crack?"

I eyed her curiously. "Yeah…after our ankles got attacked by these—"

"Silver streaks?" She put in.

My eyes widened, and I nodded slowly. "Exactly. How did you know that?"

"Because that was _my _nightmare!" She exclaimed before huffing in confusion. "That's so strange." Her eyes sought mine for confirmation. "Was the streak choking me?"

I nodded, remembering the moment of terror. "I couldn't do anything and blacked out after I crashed into something."

Her eyes widened. "It was the ground. Because after that, I wrenched the streak off my neck and went to check on you, but you were…" Her voice caught. "You were dead."

My eyes went wide as well. "Well thank Lugia it was only a dream."

She nodded and leaned into her pillow again. "Agreed." Her eyes looked around the room suspiciously. "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure," I said honestly. "Silver was in my room when I woke up."

Her head whipped to me. "Silver's _here_?"

I nodded just as the door opened and said redhead walked in. Crystal blinked in surprise, and I did the same at the twin-tailed brunette that walked in after him. She rushed in and gasped when she saw me sitting on the other side of the bed.

"Gold Kiniro!" She yelled at me. "What do you think you're doing out of bed? And without crutches?!"

I raised an eyebrow before recognizing the hyper glint in her brown eyes. "…Soul?"

She smirked and winked. "The one and only."

Silver's eyes narrowed, and he looked from me to Soul. "Wait. You know her?"

I nodded with a grin. "Crys, Silver, this is my neighbor from New Bark Town, Soul."

Silver only glared more, and Crystal tilted her head at the girl who was wearing the exact same clothes that Blue had just sent her the other day. "You're wearing my clothes…?"

Soul blinked and looked at her outfit. "Huh? No, these are mine, silly!" She gasped and ran to Crystal's bedside. "Did you get the new Sinnoh Summer Ensemble, too?" The brunette squealed and clenched her fists to her chest. "I just love the styles from that region! I had mine imported the day it came out!"

Crystal sweat-dropped and rubbed the back of her head. "A friend sent me mine…"

Soul's eyes lit up in wonder. "It must have come from Celadon's Department Store! They're the only ones other than Sinnoh who are selling it at the moment!"

Crystal just nodded her head, and Silver glowered in the corner. I noticed his foul mood and snickered. "So tell me; since when did you and Soul travel together?"

He looked at me in disgust and scoffed. "We don't. She randomly started bugging me while I was in Olivine City and asked what I was doing. I told her I was waiting for you, and she started freaking out saying that you were her neighbor. Ever since then she hasn't left me alone."

I smirked at him and turned to Soul. "Either way, it was so nice of you to come visit, Soul!"

The brunette broke away from her fashion rant to grin back. "It's been forever since I've seen you, Gold!" Again, she frowned at the sight of the brace on my knee and marched over with her arms crossed. "But you should really be getting some rest."

I scoffed. "It's not that bad. Just a little bruise."

She narrowed her eyes. "Yes, but it'll get worse if you don't take care of it." The brunette let out a sigh. "Besides, you had a small case of hypothermia as well so you really shouldn't push it!"

I tilted my head. "I had hypothermia?"

Silver nodded and jerked his head towards Crystal. "You both did, although she had it twice as worse."

The blunette gave a small shiver in response, and Soul grabbed an extra blanket from the back of her bed to wrap her up in. I watched her with solemn eyes and hung my head with a sigh. _If I had just listened to Crys about waiting the storm out, we wouldn't be in this mess. Sigh, this is all my fault._

Crystal clutched the blanket around her shoulders. "Where's Emerald?"

Silver pushed off of the wall. "He went to go retrieve your bag from the Ruins." He stalked out the door, presumably to find the missing blonde.

Her eyes softened in worry. "Is he alright?"

Soul nodded. "He told us that he and you're Xatu landed safely in one of the Ruins' caves and waited for the rain to pass. He ran into Bugsy who was on an excavation mission when the storm hit, and the two of them found you guys passed out in a different cave."

I chuckled at Crystal. "Guess we had a crazy night last night."

Soul's eyes widened. "Gold, Emerald didn't find you last night. He found you Wednesday night."

Crystal's pig-tails swished as she tilted her head. "Isn't today Thursday?"

Soul shook her head. "No, it's Saturday afternoon."

Crystal sat up quickly. "_Saturday_?!"

The brunette nodded. "You've both been sleeping for the past two days straight." She bit her lip. "Silver and I thought you were having nightmares, but you would never wake up no matter how much we tried."

I shared a look with Crystal for a moment until glancing back at Soul. "Did anything happen while we were out?"

She thought with a finger on her chin before shaking her head. "Not really. Silver called one of your seniors, Blue I believe? He let her know what had happened. Then he got a call from a group of people in Sinnoh." She sweat-dropped. "I couldn't hear them half the time because a boy and girl were arguing through the call."

Crystal and I sighed. "Ruby and Sapphire."

Soul nodded. "That's what it was! It was them and these three other kids who were with them. They wanted to check in on you guys."

"Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum," I said in response.

The brunette gave another nod before the door opened again, and Silver walked in with Emerald behind him. The blonde was holding Crystal's now-dry shoulder bag and hurried to her side.

"Crystal-chan!" He said in glee. "You woke up!"

She nodded with a smile. "Thank you for finding us!"

He shook his head. "It was all thanks to Bugsy. He knew his way around the Ruins quite well." The boy sweat-dropped. "I did take him as a girl at first, though."

I chuckled to myself. "Already went down that road."

Crystal narrowed her eyes at me, and Emerald smiled in relief. "You're up, too. That's good. I was afraid you two were going to follow suit with Yellow."

Soul tilted her head. "Yellow?"

Silver sighed heatedly. "Another issue that you don't know about because you just randomly popped up."

She turned to him with puffed cheeks. "Well, you've got all the time in the world to explain it to me."

His eyes widened. "What?"

She grinned slyly. "Yup! I've decided to stay with you guys and help these two recover!"

He frowned. "That's not a good idea. We've got something else going on at the moment, and you shouldn't get involved in it."

I smirked. "It's okay, Silver. She could help us out."

The redhead huffed. "Fine. Just let in any strangers we see fit."

Soul flicked his arm. "We're not strangers if we've already introduced ourselves!"

Silver glared at her but let the subject slide as she turned back to help me out of my chair. "Now, let's get you back into your room."

I extricated myself from her grasp. "Soul, I can walk perfectly fine."

She crossed her arms with puffed cheeks. "Alright, but I want you to go straight to your room. No exceptions! If I know you, you'll get distracted by something and make a detour."

I pouted, but she shook her head and pointed to the door. Smirking at her, I strode over to the door, Silver following me as we headed back towards my room. Once inside, I laid back down and sighed. "She's still as unwavering as ever."

"Can't argue," Silver muttered.

I grinned at him. "So why'd you bring her along with you?"

His eyes narrowed. "You think I chose to do that? She wouldn't leave me alone after our first greeting!"

I laughed. "That's Soul for you. Persistent 'til the end."

He grumbled. "More like annoying."

I hummed to myself. "I've got a feeling you'll get used to her."

His eyes snapped to mine in suspicion. "What was that?"

I flipped over on my side and bundled up under the sheets. "Can't hear you! I'm sleeping!"

"You can't be sleeping if you're talking!" He shot back. I didn't respond, however, and he gave a huff before marching out of the room and leaving me to rest.

I rolled back over with a chuckle and put my head on the pillow. Truth be told, I actually was still a bit tired from the little mishap at the ruins, so it didn't take long until I had fallen asleep again.

* * *

"Is he awake?"

"It doesn't look it…"

"HEY! YOU UP, SENIOR?!"

I could sense someone sweat-drop. "I'm pretty sure he is now."

My mouth frowned as I groggily lifted my head. "Yo, I'm trying to sleep—" My eyes widened, "here…"

Sapphire grinned at my surprised expression, and Ruby shook his head disapprovingly at her. "You're so rude sometimes."

The brunette whipped around on him with a snarl. "Who are you calling rude?! You just barged in here without even knocking first!"

He waved a hand. "But at least I didn't yell at the sleeping patient until he woke up."

She growled. "I didn't yell! I simply wanted to see if he was asleep."

Ruby rolled his eyes. "No one could sleep with you hollering in their ear, you barbarian."

Sapphire bared her teeth. "I didn't yell, sissy!"

"Savage!"

"Pansy!"

"Dirt-bather!"

"Brush-hugger!"

I groaned and stuffed my face in my pillow. Yet _another_ argument from absolutely nowhere. My ears perked up as I heard the door open and a soft sigh that followed it.

"Oh my…they are fighting again."

I lifted my head again to find that my room had more visitors, all of them juniors as well. It was the three kids old Rowan had introduced at the reunion. Looking between them, I saw the girl holding her forehead and guessed it had been her who'd said that.

The blonde, Pearl if I remembered right, rushed forward and pushed his two seniors apart. "Come on, guys! You just got out of an argument not ten minutes ago!"

Sapphire huffed and crossed her arms. "He started it."

Ruby did likewise. "Did not."

Sapphire was about to protest when Diamond appeared in front of her with a plate of cookies. "I found a snack!"

The girl's face lit up, and she totally forgot about the argument as she grabbed the plate and scarfed down the treats. Pearl sighed in relief, and Platinum walked over to where I was watching the entire fiasco.

"Are you feeling any better, Gold-san?" She asked politely.

My eyes widened at bit at the name, and I laughed lightly, sitting up in bed. "Why're you so formal? Just call me Gold!"

She blinked, taken aback for a moment, and bowed. "As you wish, Senior Gold."

I sweat-dropped. "We'll work on it."

Sapphire rushed up to my bedside, the plate of cookies practically gone already. "So you took a fall, eh?"

Ruby nodded, frowning lightly at her. "Yes, Silver told us that you and Crystal also suffered from hypothermia."

I rubbed the back of my neck and laughed nervously. "Yeah, we got stuck in a cave after flying through a downpour."

Platinum's eyes widened. "That is not safe, Senior Gold. If Emerald had not found you sooner, you and Senior Crystal could have fallen into much deeper stages of hypothermia and possibly succumbed to comas."

My eyes widened, and Ruby pouted. "Way to make the atmosphere even more depressing, Platina."

The dark-haired girl tilted her head. "I am sorry. I was simply stating what might have occurred."

Pearl popped up behind her shoulder and smiled. "Don't worry! Diamond and I will cheer everyone up with one of our manzai routines!"

Diamond looked up from his own plate of cookies with wide eyes. "Eh?"

Sapphire dashed over and replaced her empty plate with his. "Go on! Make us all laugh!"

He looked longingly at the cookies before snapping out of it as Pearl said, "When you think of Pokemon!

He leapt to the blonde's side. "When you think of Pokemon…"

Pearl put a hand on his chin. "There are many types of status ailments that affect Pokemon every day."

Diamond tilted his head. "You don't say."

Pearl nodded. "Burns, Poison, Paralysis…you would think that they would have a lasting effect on a Pokemon."

"How so?" Diamond asked.

"Well," Pearl said, "take Freeze for example. If a Pokemon is frozen, wouldn't they catch a cold from it?"

Diamond scratched his head. "I don't get it."

Pearl sweat-dropped. "It's not that difficult to understand."

Diamond waved a hand. "No, I mean, how can a Pokemon run to catch a cold if they're frozen in place?"

Ruby and Sapphire chuckled a little, and Pearl whacked him over the head with a paper fan. "That's not what I meant!" The blonde cried. "I meant sick!"

Diamond held his hands up. "Right, right."

Pearl huffed. "So if they _get sick_, their trainers would constantly have to take them to the Pokemon Center."

"You don't say!" Diamond said with a smile.

"The Pokemon Center would probably get so full that the entire city could hear the Pokemon sneezing throughout the night," Pearl sighed.

Diamond shook his head. "Oh, but I would only hear one."

Pearl's eyes widened. "And what would that be?"

Diamond grinned. "A Pik_ACHU_ of course!"

Pearl fell over anime style, and Platinum started giggling as Ruby and Sapphire laughed louder. I joined them within an instant, and the two Sinnoh boys watched smiling as we got our bearings about ourselves.

"Oh," I sighed after my laughter had died down. "I don't know how you guys do it, but I'm feeling better already."

The door opened suddenly, and the room was flooded further as the rest of the gang joined us. Silver came to take Ruby's place at my bedside, and Emerald drifted off to stand next to him and Sapphire. The Sinnoh trio made room for Soul who walked in with Crystal right behind her, and the two leaned against the wall.

"Well, geez we could have a party in here!" I grinned.

Crystal rolled her eyes, obviously feeling better than before. "We just thought it would be easier for everybody to talk if we were in the same room."

At the mention of everybody, I finally realized that all the juniors were in fact _here. _I tilted my head in confusion. "Wait, first Silvy randomly shows up, and now the rest of you?!"

The redhead beside me nodded. "Blue also asked me to call in the juniors. We're going to need all the help we can get to find Yellow."

Ruby sighed to himself. "We didn't even know she was gone." He glared at Sapphire. "That's what happens when you bet people into travelling a new region."

She glared back. "You're the one who agreed to it!"

Emerald sweat-dropped, right in the middle of them. "Would you two stop it?!" He sighed. "That's one thing I didn't miss when you left."

They huffed and crossed arms away from each other as Pearl scratched the back of his head. "Maybe we shouldn't have offered to show them around Sinnoh…"

Platinum shook her head, and Diamond simply ate what was left of the cookies on his plate from Sapphire's assault.

The door then opened again, and in walked Nurse Joy with a clipboard and pencil, surprising considering we were probably at a hospital instead of a Pokemon Center. She seemed slightly startled by how many people were in the room but smiled anyways.

"Hello," she said to everyone. "I have some news concerning Gold and Crystal and their Pokemon."

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and started standing up. It was a little too fast for my knee which almost gave out when I put it down on the ground. Silver caught my arm, and Soul crossed her arms at me as I straightened up.

"I still say you need crutches," the brunette muttered.

"Actually," Nurse Joy said in response, "Gold won't be needing crutches. His knee isn't as bruised as we thought and should clear up within a few days." She waggled her pencil lightly at me. "Although, you should still try to keep off it today. You can work on walking on it more tomorrow."

I nodded, and she turned to Crystal. "As for you dear, you just had a severe case of hypothermia. Gold also had one, but it was much less serious and didn't need as much attention. Looking at your amount of rest, I'd say you've slept most of it off. However since you've gotten hypothermia so bad before, it will be easier for you to get colder and develop it again in the future. So be sure to stay warm."

Crystal copied my nod, and Nurse Joy brought out two Pokeballs, handing one to her and me. "Your Xatu was perfectly unharmed, but the Togekiss suffered a broken wing."

I looked in at Togetaro through his Pokeball and saw that he was sleeping with one of his wings wrapped up in a bandage.

Nurse Joy smiled sympathetically. "We've patched him up and given him medicine, but all he needs now is time for his wing to heal. He needs to stay off it and not fly until it has completely healed." She turned to the rest of the kids standing around the room. "If you all need rooms to stay in, there are plenty open at the Pokemon Center right across the street."

Platinum softly cried out a thank you as the nurse opened the door and went back to the Pokemon Center to check on her patients. Crystal put Xatee's Pokeball in her bag hanging from her shoulder, and it was then that everyone saw that her clothes were identical to the brunette beside her. Soul took the liberty of introducing herself to the others, and I took a minute to check on my Togekiss.

As I was observing him through the Pokeball, Crystal broke away from the rest of the Dex Holders to walk up to my bedside, standing on the other side of me from Silver. The redhead was watching the others talk with Soul and frowned. "She's popular with them already."

I laughed. "She's popular with every—hey!" I held the back of my head and glared at Crystal who was pulling her hand back from the hit. "What was that for?!"

She crossed her arms. "I told you we should have landed!"

I sighed. "I know, I know. Just, stop beating me okay?!"

She rolled her eyes and leaned against the railing of the bed. "I still don't know who it was."

Silver turned his gaze to her. "Who?"

She huffed. "The person who was attacking me in the Ruins. I was getting Parasee so I could make Gold a painkiller when this Skarmory came out of nowhere." She cupped her chin in her fingers. "At first, I thought it was wild, but right before I blacked out, I thought I heard footsteps and someone's voice. I can't quite remember what they said, though."

I raised an eyebrow. "So someone _was _attacking you?"

She nodded. "The cold got to me again before I could do anything but release Hitmonee for protection. I would've had Arckee do that, but he was still with you—" She looked up sharply and ransacked her bag before pulling out a Pokeball with a sigh of relief. "I thought they'd left him there. Emerald must have gotten him out of that hole when they found us."

Silver stared at the ground. "So some random person started attacking you guys when you were cold and defenseless?" Crystal nodded, and his gaze grew more intense. "And it was a _Skarmory?_" Again she nodded, albeit more slowly. Silver let out a breath and closed his eyes. "Then it's not her."

I poked his arm. "Yo, Silver. Stop talking to yourself; you'll go crazy. Who are you talking about?"

"Melany," he muttered.

Crystal tilted her head. "That one girl Amber used to work with?"

The redhead nodded. "I thought it might have been her, but she doesn't have a Skarmory."

"Hm," I hummed. "So that's means that someone else is messing with us, right?"

"Yeah…" Silver trailed off in thought. He reached into his back pocket for his Pokegear. "I should tell Blue and Green." Right as he was about to press a button, the screen started flashing, signaling an incoming call. He hit answer and held it out in front of him. "Just the person who I wanted to talk to."

"Oh?" came Blue's voice from the phone.

The noise in the room gradually died down as the others realized that it was Blue, and we all crowded around Silver's little Pokegear.

"Yeah," he said in annoyance at the crowding. "Just discovered that there's someone else besides Melany who is trying to stop us."

Blue made a sound of interest. "That's new. But even so, she's still around so be careful."

Silver's eyes narrowed. "How do you know?"

Everyone could sense Blue smiling from the other end of the line. "Professor Oak got back yesterday and was able to help us expand the tracker."

"So?" The redhead huffed in frustration, waiting for his answer.

"_So_," Blue mimicked him. "We were able to move the tracker outside of Kanto, and good news. We found out that we were right."

Silence raked the room in her short pause.

"Yellow's in Johto."

* * *

Me: *readjusts strap on shoulder* Well, I'm off! Wish me luck!

Max: Good luck!

Carlos: You can do it!

Gardevoir: Waiting for you to fail...

Me: *glares* Thanks.

Gardevoir: *sigh* You've got this. I'm sure you'll do well.

Me: *grin* Thanks!

Gardevoir: *shoves me out the door* Yeah, yeah now get moving!

Me: Haha! Hope you all enjoyed the chapter! I wanted to get it posted before I left for the weekend so you'd all have something to read :3 So as usual, let me know what you thought and hopefully I'll upload here soon and tell you all how the battle tournament went! Review and return!


	4. Chapter 4: Adventures in Azalea Town

Me: *emo corner*

Max: *sweatdrop* So how'd the tournament go?

Me: T.T So. Strong.

Gardevoir: She didn't win.

Carlos: But she got close! *pokes my shoulder* You got into the semifinals and stuff right?

Me: *nod* They were just...so strong...

Gardevoir: *sigh* You know what that means...

Max & Carlos: Eh?

Me: *pops out of emo corner determined* Time to start training for next year!

Max & Carlos: *fall over anime style*

Gardevoir: **Disclaimer: Eon doesn't own Pokemon in any way. OC's, plot, you know, that does, though.**

* * *

Chapter Four: Crystal

"I still feel bad about this," Emerald muttered under his breath.

Soul put a hand on his shoulder. "We'll be fine. Ruby and Sapphire need you more right now."

Behind him in the front of the Pokemon Center, Diamond and Pearl were finishing attaching a few saddlebags onto Platinum's Rapidash while the dark-haired girl was making plans with Ruby. Gold and Silver were helping Sapphire make sure she had everything they'd need in the bags hanging from her Tropius. In the meantime, Soul was by my side trying to convince Emerald that everything would be fine.

"But what if someone randomly attacks you again?" He asked with crossed arms and a raised eyebrow. "We never figured out who it was."

I sighed loudly and pushed him over towards Ruby and Sapphire. "It'll be okay! What's important right now is finding Yellow."

The blonde nodded reluctantly. Over on the Tropius, Sapphire and Silver jumped down from the Pokemon's back before the latter turned back to help Gold. The hothead refused his assistance, though, and leapt down himself, stumbling a little as he landed. The redhead glared at him just as Ruby and Platinum nodded their heads.

"So you three will head for Blackthorn City to investigate while Sapphire and Emerald come with me to search Violet City," Ruby went over with her.

She nodded. "We will try to get there as soon as possible."

Diamond and Pearl unfolded a map between them, and Platinum hopped on her Rapidash as the three of them set off. As Gold and I had listened to everyone yesterday, we'd found out that we were residing in the Azalea Town Pokemon Center, so those three were going to head to the outskirts of New Bark Town before turning north to climb up the hills of Route 45. Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald were going to travel back the way we'd come to Violet City as well but riding on Pilo through the air instead for a faster trip.

Emerald turned back to me with a frown. "Are you sure you'll be alright?"

I sighed again and pulled out Xatee's Pokeball. "I will be just fine. Here, Xatee will help make it easier for you to get to Violet City. Take good care of her, okay?"

He nodded and took the Pokeball. "You know I will." In exchange for my Pokemon, he handed me one of his Pokeballs. "Snorlax might come in handy later on. I'll take her back when we meet up again."

I smiled in agreement as Ruby and Sapphire started calling for him. He released my Xatu, and Gold and Silver came to my and Soul's side as the Hoenn trio lifted off and set to the skies. We watched them become dots in the far distant blue until Soul let out a sigh and smiled distantly at them.

"With any luck they'll get some leads on Yellow's whereabouts," she said hopefully.

I nodded. All Blue had been able to tell us yesterday evening was that Yellow was in Johto. There were currently three major concentrations of Team Rocket members according to the tracker; one to the north of Blackthorn City, one to the east of Violet, and another in the depths of the Ilex Forest. That one was our responsibility to look into once Gold's knee had healed. Any of them could be the site where they were holding Yellow; it was our job to figure out which one.

I sighed. "So now what?"

Gold smirked and linked arms. "We explore Azalea Town!"

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Aren't you supposed to be resting your knee?"

He waved his hand. "Psht! I've been doing that for the past couple of days! It's about time that I started working the kinks out of it!"

I rolled my eyes, glancing over to find that Soul was watching me with a blank face. "What?"

She smirked to herself and pulled on Silver's arm. "Let's go exploring, too!"

The redhead was about to protest, but she latched onto him and ran off, leaving me and Gold with still linked arms. He turned to me with a toothy grin.

"So where are we off to first?" He asked cheerfully.

My lips quirked, and I started dragging him back into the Pokemon Center. "To your bed so you can rest your knee."

He let out a whine. "Come on, Super Serious Gal!" He dug his heels into the ground and forced me to stop. "I've been sitting for way too long! And so have you! Let's just take a walk!"

I scrutinized his pleading eyes before sighing. "You may have a point…"

He grinned and grabbed my wrist. "Let's go!"

A yelp escaped my lips as he copied Soul and started running through Azalea Town. His grip was tight as he sprinted along the streets. The town itself wasn't too big, but there was a main street lined with cute little shops on either side of the road. He pulled me into the nearest one, the bell ringing as we stepped into the store. One look at the glass cases around us told us all we needed to know.

Gold stuck his tongue out. "A jewelry store…"

I rolled my eyes and glanced at the cases. Most of what they had to offer were wedding rings, but being a jewelry store that was expected. Walking along, I observed the various gemstones and metals with light interest while Gold leaned against the wall near the front door. He was making it obvious that he wanted to leave, but I ignored and made him wait.

I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, but after five minutes of looking around, my eyes happened to chance upon something that immediately sparked my interest. Peering closely through the glass, my eyes widened at what I'd found.

It was a single silver star on a matching chain, the five points outlined in a line of gold that twisted in and out from the center of the star. The pendent was nothing fancy, but then again that was probably why it appealed to me so much at first sight.

"Crys…" Gold suddenly whined from behind me.

I quickly turned around to him and sighed. "I know, I know. Let's go to the next store."

He smiled in delight and led the way out. I gave the star one last glance before putting it behind me and following him. Despite how much I liked it, there was no way I could afford it right now. Besides, we were just window shopping today.

Gold proceeded to take us into every store that lined the main street. There was an art shack, a sports store, and a thrift shop which he absolutely loved. He made us stop for a good half hour just to try on random clothes that he found around the store. When he emerged from the dressing room for the twenty-fourth time (yeah, I was counting), he grinned from beneath the gangster hat that was covering half of his face.

"Come on, Super Serious Gal!" He walked over to me with crossed arms. "Don't just sit there like a Snorlax; try something on!"

I sighed. "Gold, there's no point in this. It's not like we're going to buy anything."

He rolled his eyes. "There doesn't have to be a point. We're just having fun!"

I raised an eyebrow. "_This _is fun?"

He ran over to a rack of clothes that he tore off and dumped into my arms. "Just try it!"

I glanced at the clothes uncertainly, but he pulled me out of my chair and thrust me into a different changing room. I spread the random articles apart from each other and tried to put them together to create something at least decent. In the end, though, it was just a random matchup of things thrown together.

When I opened my door and walked out, the first thing I heard was Gold laughing. Frankly, I didn't blame him. I was wearing a garish Hawaiian-styled shirt with a giant Eskimo hat, combat boots, and cargo shorts.

"See?" He chuckled. "Isn't this fun?"

I glared. "Not particularly."

He waved me on. "Then try a different one!"

I sighed. "Can't I choose my own clothes to try on?"

He grinned cheekily. "Nope!"

Frowning slightly, I went to the rack and held back a laugh as I pulled a few things off and handed them to him. "Fine. Then you have to try on what I pick for you."

He took one look at the clothes and shook his head. "No way. Nope."

I smirked. "But if I can't choose my clothes, then that means you can't either right?"

His jaw dropped. "Don't use my words against me!"

I chuckled lightly as he snatched the clothes, sitting down to wait for him to change. After a few minutes, he poked his head out and frowned. "There. You happy now?"

I shook my head. "No, you have to come out here and show me."

He growled slightly and emerged. And then it was my turn to bust out laughing. He was fitted in one of those old cream colored dresses with the puffy sleeves and frills sewed on everywhere. He had a fur shawl wrapped around his arms and one of those flapper feathers stuck in his hair above his ear.

"Where're the heels?" I managed to ask between laughs.

His eyes narrowed. "I'm a guy. We don't do heels."

I pointed at the hideous gown. "Oh, but you do dresses?"

He cursed under his breath as I continued laughing. I took a picture with the new-versioned Pokegear that I'd bought at one of the previous stores since mine had been ruined during the storm. Gold had gotten one, too, and he used it then to check the time.

"Yeah, yeah, it's about time we got going," he muttered before running back into the stall to change.

I forced myself to stop chuckling and do the same. By the time I was coming out again, Gold had put all the clothes back and was waiting in the chair for me. He was glaring slightly, and I shrugged with a smile before hanging my own clothes back up. Readjusting my bag on my shoulder, I turned to find that he had followed, and we made our way for the front door.

Out on the street, more people were filling the sidewalks as the afternoon grew later and the sun began to sink. We'd been to almost every store now, so Gold turned to me.

"Any idea where to go now?" He asked.

I tilted my head in thought. "We're in Azalea Town?"

"Yeah," he answered curiously.

I checked my bag for Apricorns and nodded. "Let's go see Kurt."

Red

I couldn't stop myself from pacing around the research room of Professor Oak's lab. We'd all traveled to Pallet Town once the professor had gotten back on Friday, and it hadn't taken long for him and Green to figure out how to expand the tracker. Black and White had come back with us as well, and even though her company didn't like it, the girl had requested to take another month off to help us out. Thankfully, she'd been granted permission, and the two were currently at the lab with the rest of us. Including Amber.

The thought of my brother made me pace all the more.

"He's helping us," I muttered lowly, still in disbelief.

I almost thought it was a trick when he'd first suggested it. He tried to kidnap Yellow, so who could blame me for not believing him? But when Professor Oak and Green said that the tracker idea had actually worked, I'd had to rethink this over. So now I was faced with having to decide whether or not my brother was bad along with trying to figure out which Team Rocket site Yellow was at.

I angrily tugged my foot against the chain that was linking it to a steel table. Oh yeah, not to mention they wouldn't let me go help rescue Yellow.

I fumingly leaned against the steel table on my elbows. It was the same one that Green and I had used when we were trying to figure out how to open Amber's TR necklace. Blue and Green were over by the computer we'd used to kill the virus inside the tracker. They heard me struggling against the chain and turned to look at me.

"Red," Green muttered lowly.

"You know you can't go," Blue murmured sadly.

I frowned. "Give me one reason why!"

Blue gestured at my raging aura. "Look at you! You're nothing like yourself! You're letting your anxiety and anger get the best of you! If you can't keep control over your emotions, you won't do any good in getting her back!"

I shut my mouth at that, not wanting to admit that she was right.

"Just calm down," Green said smoothly.

I took a deep breath, laying my head atop my arms on the table. "Okay I'm calm. Can I go now?"

"No," he said flatly.

I bolted up and clenched my teeth. "Why not?!"

He raised an eyebrow and pointed at me. "Look. I just ignited your anger again with one word. You're not calmed down yet."

I sighed heatedly and collapsed onto the floor. Blue tilted her head sympathetically and sat down beside me. "Hey, just hang on. Since when do things not turn out right for us?"

I gave a huff, and she ruffled my hair. My hat was sitting on the table out of the reach of any wringing my hands might do to it. "You'll see. Everything will turn out just fine."

I simply nodded, and she got up to continue watching the movements on the tracker. Green moved aside a little to make room for her before turning to me. "Why don't you go check on Black and White? They've been watching Amber for a while now."

My jaw stiffened a bit. "Hm, but this chain…"

At that moment, Silver walked in as if Green had somehow summoned him. "Ready to go on Amber Watch?"

I nodded hesitantly, not sure whether or not I wanted to see my brother at the moment. Silver undid the chain at my ankle, and Green stared at me hard for a second before turning away with closed eyes. "He doesn't need it anymore. I think he gets the point now."

Silver blinked and nodded. He unwrapped it from the steel table and led the way out of the research room. He stuck the chain in a storage closet to deal with later, and I walked behind him as we headed for one of the back rooms Professor Oak used to store the various Pokeballs in his lab. The redhead opened the door, and the two of us froze at what we found inside.

"Okay, okay," Black chuckled. "You just twist your arm sideways…"

Silver eyes widened along with mine as we found that Black and White had their hands locked with Amber's, their arms twisted together above their heads.

"Like this?" Amber asked. He bent his arm to the right, poking White with his elbow.

"No," she laughed. "The other way!"

Silver frowned uncertainly. "What…are you guys…doing?"

The trio looked at us with wide eyes, and I crossed my arms. "And what is _he_," I directed at Amber, "doing out of his chair?"

They broke their arms apart from their detangling game, and Black frowned at me. "Red, he's been sitting in it for almost two days now. Sleeping included! Don't you think he should at least be able to stretch every now and then?"

I didn't say anything. Silver finally nodded for me after a minute. "Well, you guys are off duty now. Red and I will take it from here."

Black and White glanced hesitantly between Amber and I but slowly drifted out to see what Green and Blue needed them to do. Silver shut the door behind them, and Amber awkwardly sat back down in his chair. He held the rope that was usually tied around him up to me, and I bit my lip before turning to Silver.

"Would you, uh…" I trailed off.

He stared at me for a second before understanding what I meant. "Oh, sure."

Amber watched with wide eyes as the redhead walked out of the room, and I sat in a chair on the other side of the table he was sitting at.

"So…" He muttered uncertainly. "You're _not _going to tie me up?"

I gave him a hard look and sighed slightly. "No."

He blinked. "I'm surprised."

My eyes narrowed. "Did you really have nothing to do with Melany kidnapping Yellow?"

Amber nodded. "I've told you, Red. My original mission was to kidnap Yellow. I didn't want to do that anymore, though. When I went to tell Yellow that, I didn't realize that Melany had followed me." He looked down at the table. "I'm sorry."

I stared at him for a long time. Neither of us said anything. Amber glanced up at me, and I watched his golden orange eyes closely. Finally, after what seemed like an era of silence, I finally opened my mouth.

"I believe you."

Both our eyes widened in shock, and he stared harder at me. "B-But I thought…"

I shook my head, surprised at what I'd said. "Yeah, me too. I've believed that you were a liar this whole time." My thoughts drifted away for a second. "But…there are some things you just can't lie about."

Amber tilted his head slightly, and I sat back with a hand on my chin. I couldn't believe I was saying it, but Yellow was right. Sometimes you couldn't help but hear the truth behind someone's words. Maybe the only reason I'd refused to let myself accept it was that he was my rival when it came to her.

My eyes hardened at that thought, and he lifted an eyebrow. "What?"

My hand was covering my mouth, and I pulled it away. "How do you feel about Yellow?"

For a second he just looked blankly at me before chuckling to himself. "Oh yes, there was that."  
I bristled. "Well?"

He laughed softly. "You have nothing to worry about."

My frustration was replaced with surprise. "What do you mean?"

"I discovered that I don't actually feel for her the same way you do," he explained gently.

I raised an eyebrow in suspicion. "How do I know _that's_ true?"

His gaze went serious. "Because Yellow told me herself that it's _you_ she cares about."

My eyes widened. "S-She did?"

He nodded. "Besides, I have someone that I held dear like you do her."

I tilted my head. "Held?"

His eyes fell. "Yeah, she, uh…she's…dead…"

For the first time in a while, I felt a pang of sympathy for my twin. "Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up any bad memories."

He shook his head and smiled faintly. "It's fine. It's the least I can deal with after what I did to you guys."

After a moment, I smiled back at him. "You got that right."

His small smirk wavered. "What was that?"

I laughed, and he did so with me.

_So, what does this mean? _I thought silently. _Am I friends with him again? _

I glanced at his laughter and smiled slightly.

_Maybe…just maybe…_

Gold

Crystal was checking how many Apricorns she had as we approached Kurt's house. I had to grab her arm and pull the girl back to keep her from running into the front door.

"Try not to knock yourself out," I snickered at her.

She rolled her eyes. "Just ring the doorbell or something."

I racked my knuckles on the door as she zipped her bag up. There was a sound of footsteps from inside, and a second later the door opened up to reveal a small girl with dark hair.

"Can I help you guys?" She asked curiously.

"I'm Crystal," said girl explained with a smile, "and this is Gold. We were wondering if Kurt was here."

She turned to me, her eyes widening in recognition. "Oh yeah! You're the boy who caught me a Teddiursa a couple years ago!"

I grinned. "That's me! Is Kurt home?"

"Yeah, Grandpa's inside working on a Pokeball," she said cheerfully. "Come on in!"

She opened the door wider, and Crystal and I followed her inside where the elderly man was working intently on a strange multi-colored Pokeball. He heard the door close and looked up to find us standing there.

"Crystal," he smiled faintly, "and…Gold."

I frowned. "Good to see you, too, Kurt."

He stood up from his work and walked over to the little girl. "What can I do for you guys?"

Crystal reached into her bag and pulled out the Apricorns inside. "I was wondering if you could make some Pokeballs for me. It's been a while since I've stopped by to get some from you."

Kurt nodded and reached for the Apricorns. "I'd be happy to." The man turned to his granddaughter. "Maisy, would you take these to the back room for me?"

The dark-haired girl nodded and took the Apricorns before scampering off. "Sure, Grandpa!"

Kurt watched her go before turning back to Crystal. "I apologize, but they might not be ready for a couple days."

Crystal's eyes widened. "A couple days? But normally you'd be finished by tomorrow."

He nodded with a sigh. "I know, but I got a rare order from someone the other day, and it's taking me much longer than I thought it would."

"What'd they order?" I asked with a tilted head.

The man turned towards the Pokeball he'd been working on and beckoned to us to follow. "It's a strange request, I might add. I've never had one like it before."

"What makes it so different?" Crystal asked in confusion.

He picked up the partially-done Pokeball and showed it to us. "The person asked me to make it out of all seven Apricorns."

My eyes widened. "_All seven?_ Is that even possible?"

Kurt nodded slowly. "I can do it. It just takes a little bit of creative thinking and careful cutting."

"Why would someone ask for one like that?" Crystal pondered quietly.

"I asked the same thing," Kurt murmured, "but all they said was that it will make the Pokeball more durable." He sighed. "I would have completed it by now, but I realized halfway through that I was missing a Pink and Black Apricorn. Without them, I can't finish this project."

Crystal put a finger to her chin. "If I'm right, there should be a Pink and Black Apricorn tree just outside of Azalea Town on Route 33."

"You're right," Kurt said in thought. "I would go, but I don't have the time. I need to finish making the part of the Pokeball with the Apricorns I have, and Maisy is busy training her Teddiursa." He turned to us. "Would you two mind fetching them for me?"

Crystal smiled. "Of course not!" She looked at me, slightly worried. "Is your knee bothering you?"

I kicked it out. "Nope! It'll be just fine."

She looked at me suspiciously but eventually nodded. "Alright, we'll be back later then, Kurt!"

He waved good-bye to us as we walked back outside and headed for the other side of town. After a while, we made our way onto the route and began searching for the Apricorn trees.

"So, what exactly are we looking for?" I asked uncertainly.

Crystal parted the tall grass in front of her. "A cone-shaped tree. The Apricorns are bright so you should be able to see them easily."

I followed through the field behind her, sighing in annoyance. "Super Serious Gal, this isn't fun at all."

She huffed and glared back at me. "Well, we told Kurt we'd do it so deal with it."

"No, _you _said that we would do it," I pointed out. "So that means _you _have to make it fun."

She rolled her eyes. "How am I supposed to make this fun?"

I smirked in thought and ran ahead of her to crouch in front of the tall grass. "Well, for example, we could pretend to be spies," I suggested, parting the grass slowly and sneakily.

Crystal watched me with a sweatdrop. "Gold, that's just silly."

My eyes widened at what I found behind the grass. "I don't think so. Look at what I just found."

I smirked as Crystal came up beside me and watched in surprise as Soul bounced through the meadow of tall grass about fifty feet ahead of us with a reluctant Silver behind her. At one point, she stopped her gait and plopped down in the field.

"Come on," I grinned, grabbing Crystal's hand and sneaking towards them. "Let's play spies!"

She tried to protest, but I shushed her as we got closer. She glared at me but stayed quiet as we crouched down to avoid being seen. I grinned evilly and slightly parted the grass so we could see Soul and Silver ahead of us.

"Why don't you just sit down and relax for once?" Soul asked with puffed cheeks.

The redhead frowned at her. "I don't relax."

She rolled her eyes. "I can tell." When he simply nodded and stuffed his hands in his pockets, she reached a hand out and pulled him to the ground. "Maybe you should try it once in a while."

He glared at her. "Who are you to tell me what I should do?"

She shrugged. "I'm not. All I'm saying is that you look like you could use some time to wind down."

He sighed angrily and crossed his arms and legs. "Why are you even here? Did you really have to follow me all the way from Olivine City?"

The brunette giggled. "I've already told you! I wanted to see Gold! It's been a long time since I last talked to him."

Silver turned to look at her. "You're neighbors, right? Why didn't you just go see if he was at home?"

Soul raised an eyebrow. "You think I haven't already tried that? He hasn't really been home as of lately."

He rubbed the back of his neck. "We've been kind of busy."

She nodded. "I see you guys have made a lot of friends."

I realized that she meant all the juniors that had come to visit, and Silver looked up at the sky. "Yeah, Gold, Crystal, and I met them all at a reunion about a month ago."

Soul looked down at her hands in her lap. "She and Gold are very close aren't they?"

Beside me, Crystal's eyes widened, and Silver turned to the brunette. "Yes."

She tore off a piece of grass and started twisting it in knots. "What's she like?"

"She's smart, athletic, extremely serious, and tends to harp on Gold a lot." He eyed her curiously. "Why do you ask?"

She smiled faintly. "Oh, no reason in particular." Her fingers gently wove the grass together. "I just wanted to know. I like puzzles and watching them fit together."

Silver nodded slowly. "Well, I'm afraid that these certain puzzle pieces might not fit together in the end."

Soul looked at him and smiled. "Guess we'll just have to wait and see, now won't we?"

He didn't respond, and Crystal and I looked at each other with wide eyes. Ever so slowly, we backed away from the two so that they wouldn't notice us. Once we were in the clear, we straightened up and glanced at them in the distance.

"Had your fun now?" Crystal asked with narrowed eyes.

I nodded with a blank face. "Let's go find those Apricorn trees."

She went back to parting the grass, and I went back to following her through it. Again I could feel boredom slowly creeping up on me and was about to sigh when she finally came to a stop.

"Here they are," she said proudly.

In front of her were two trees, one sporting a bright pink Apricorn and the other an Apricorn as dark as night. I dashed around her to the dark one and picked it just as she plucked the other one. I reached back to the tree for more and stopped short when I realized that there wasn't more.

"Where are the rest of them?" I questioned, jerking my head around the tree trying to find the others.

"Gold," Crystal explained, "there's only one per tree. If we were to come back tomorrow, there should be another one."

I nodded, my mind wandering in thought as I handed her the Apricorn. "Hey, what do you think Silver and Soul were talking about back there?"

Crystal paused momentarily. "I…I don't know. It sounded like puzzles."

"Hm," I hummed as we started walking back towards Kurt's house.

She glanced up at me. "What?"

I tapped my chin. "I feel like there was something more to it. You know, premonition so to say."

The blunette watched her feet as we walked. "I guess it's possible."

I gasped. "You don't think they were talking about themselves?!"

Crystal raised her eyebrow. "Eh?"

"They were being all ominous and talking about puzzle pieces _fitting together_," I said dramatically. "I think there's something going on between them!"

She narrowed her eyes at me. "Where do you come up with these ideas?"

I grinned cheekily, and she listened to my possible theories as we came up to Kurt's cottage. He answered the door upon our knocking and gratefully took the two Apricorns.

"Thank you," he told us. "In exchange, I'll make sure I get your Pokeballs done by tomorrow."

Crystal waved her hand. "It's alright. It may be a while, but I'll be sure to remember to stop by and pick them up."

Kurt shook his head. "It'll be my thanks. Now you two run along; it's starting to get late."

Crystal nodded her thanks, and I checked my new Pokegear for the time as we headed back to the Pokemon Center. "He's right. It's almost six." She nodded, and I put the small device away. "But anyways, back to more important business!" I grinned evilly. "How to poke fun at Soul and Silver."

Crystal gave me a look. "I'd be careful. Silver might not like that."

I laughed. "Oh, Silvy will get over it! Besides, he's the one who decided to just talk about it in the open like that!"

She watched me as I schemed in my head, blushing slightly as she looked away. "It might not have been him and Soul that they were talking about…"

* * *

Me: *gasp* Gold's birthday was yesterday!

Max: Happy belated birthday, Gold!

Carlos: *shoots off confetti canon* Whoo!

Gardevoir: *sweatdrop* What is with you and confetti canons?

Carlos: *grin* They're fun! *shoots Gardevoir in the face*

Gardevoir: Did you just...? *uses Psychic powers to stuff him in the canon and shoot him off into the distance*

Me: O.O *leans over to Max* I don't think she's in a celebration kind of mood

Max: *narrows eyes* What gave it away?!

Gardevoir: *dusts off hands* Well! That takes care of that!

Carlos: *off in the distant* So does this mean no cake?!

Me: Hello all! T.T I've been gone for too long! But the tournament was a total blast! Everyone was so nice and well-trained, it was like real battling! I unfortunately didn't make it to the finals, but hey! There's always next year! And I was hoping to put this up on Gold's birthday, but ah, how I get distracted XD Happy birthday Gold! Review and return everyone!


	5. Chapter 5: Obstacles, Oh Obstacles

Me: ERMAGERD! *shakes Gardevoir* Do you know what today is?

Max: *shakes Carlos* SERIOUSLY? DO YOU KNOW WHAT TODAY IS, BOY?

Gardevoir: *swirly eyes*

Carlos: *fighting nausea* For goodness sake just say it already before I suffer from motion sickness...

Me: IT'S RED'S BIRTHDAY!

Max: WHICH MEAN'S IT'S ALSO AMBER'S BIRTHDAY!

Gardevoir & Carlos: *sweatdrop* Right.

Me & Max: *run off to buy a cake* EEEE!

Gardevoir: *rubs temple* Why does it seem like a good half of these banters include fangirling and/or someone's birthday?

Carlos: *sigh* That's Margaret for ya.

Gardevoir: **Disclaimer: Eon does not own Pokemon in any way. Or rather I should say Margaret doesn't :p**

* * *

Chapter Five: Crystal

"Alright, Gold," Nurse Joy said happily, "you're free to go!"

Beside me, the boy let out a cheer. Silver rolled his eyes, and Soul clapped lightly.

"Just stay out of the storms from now on, okay?" The pink-haired woman said sternly.

Gold nodded quickly, and she let us out with a wave of her hand.

As soon as we got out of the Pokemon Center doors, he fell to his knees and pumped his arms in the sky. "Freedom!"

Silver rolled his eyes again. "Stop messing around. We have to get everything we need before we go to Ilex Forest."

Soul pulled a list out of her bag as Gold pouted and got up. "Hm, there's really nothing on here that we can't get from the Pokemart."

Silver started walking. "Then let's go. The quicker we get around, the quicker we can look for Yellow."

Soul turned to Gold and me. "You ready?"

I shook my head. "Actually, I have to stop by Kurt's house to pick up some Pokeballs."

The brunette turned to Gold. "What about you?"

He gave me a look before turning back to Soul. "I'll go with Crys."

She nodded. "Okay! We'll meet up with you guys there!" And with that she ran after the redhead who was stilling marching on.

Gold spun on his heel, and I shook my head as he started sprinting to Kurt's house. It was like he'd never even hurt his knee in the first place.

I sighed and started running. "Gold, wait!"

My feet pounded the ground as I ran through town behind him. As we made it more towards the countryside, I lost sight of him on the path ahead. I looked around for any sign of him and turned around to search behind me in case he'd turned back. Continuing to walk backwards, I accidentally bumped into something and whipped around to find that it was Gold leaning against a tree, partially hidden from sight.

"Hey," I frowned. "What are you doing?"

He didn't say anything, just jerked his head at the trail before us. There was Kurt's house on the right of the road and the gate to Ilex Forest straight ahead. And in the middle of those...

I squinted my eyes. "Is that…the one guy from the store?"

Heading towards the Ilex gate was the guy who had helped me at the Goldenrod Department Store, his russet hair poking out of the same grey fedora. He didn't look any different from before save for the black bag that was slung over his shoulder.

Gold nodded. "Funny. We don't even know his name."

I nodded slowly in return, watching the mysterious guy disappear into the gate. "No, we don't." I shook my head and gently hit Gold's arm. "Come on."

He pushed off the tree, and we made our way for Kurt's house. I knocked on his front door, and it took a minute before it opened up to show a disheveled Kurt.

"Woah, what happened to you?" Gold chuckled with wide eyes.

The old man sighed. "Today was Maisy's first day of girl scouts, and her Teddiursa isn't used to the sudden change. Maisy's usually really good at keeping it entertained, but since she hasn't been here all day, it's decided to get into my work space."

Gold smirked. "Can't handle a tame little Teddiursa?"

Kurt scowled but smiled a moment a later. "All right hotshot. I have to go pick up Maisy in ten minutes. While I'm gone, how about you watch the Teddiursa?" He returned Gold's smirk. "Shouldn't be too hard for you, no?"

Gold took Kurt's outstretched hand. "You're on old man!"

I hit Gold's arm for his rudeness, but Kurt didn't even seem to mind. He simply walked past us and waved back. "Have fun."

Gold rolled his eyes and opened the door further with a smile. "How hard can it be to watch a Teddiursa?"

As soon as the door was open, we froze. Papers were strewn everywhere, pillows had been thrown off the couch, and there was something moving underneath the pile of pots and pans streaming out from the kitchen. Gold curiously walked over and smiled when he lifted a pan to find the cause.

"Hey you!" He said cheerfully, lifting the Teddiursa from beneath all the metal. "Remember me?"

The small bear Pokemon tilted its head at him for a moment before smiling and playfully swiping its claws across his face. He winced, and it bounced out of his arms, running to throw the pillows around.

I laughed as he grimaced at the Teddiursa. "Oh yeah, you've totally got this under control."

He smirked. "Yes, I do." He walked over to the Pokemon with his arms held out. "Come on, let's not rip those little pillows apart."

Teddiursa stopped its antics to look up at his approaching figure. When he was a foot away, it jumped up and head-butted his stomach, causing him to fall on his back. Sitting on his chest, it clapped its hands together in glee.

He laughed slightly. "Okay, okay, let me up now."

It shook his head, and when he reached his hands out to pick it up, it swiped at them with its claws. Gold frowned slightly and tried again but only received more scratches. Teddiursa then thought it was a game and started swatting playfully at him.

"Crys!" He whispered loudly.

I turned my amused smile to him. "Yes?"

"Quick! Grab a blanket!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Why?"

"You can grab it and wrap it up so it can't jump around and get into more stuff."

"Won't it just run away when I approach?" I asked.

He started playing with it more, even getting the cute Pokemon to laugh. "Nope, I've got it distracted. But it'll get bored soon and move on! Hurry!"

I put a hand to my chin. "Hm, and I should help you because…?"

He tilted his head backwards to look up at me with pleading eyes. "Because I'm a friend in need, and you'd never leave a friend hanging."

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Where's the blanket?"

He grinned. "Back of the couch."

I snuck over and grabbed it without attracting Teddiursa's attention. Peeking over the back of the couch, I watched it start to stand up and jumped at it, blanket ready to snatch it up. It seemed to have sensed me coming, though, and quickly jumped off Gold. I came up empty-handed, and the Pokemon went straight for Kurt's workroom. Gold and I turned to each other with wide eyes and scampered after it.

Inside the workroom, Teddiursa was walking on the tables, tiptoeing between the Pokeballs Kurt was currently working on and picking up a Heavy Ball that he'd already finished. Twirling it on its claw, Teddiursa launched it just as Gold and I entered the doorway. The Pokeball hit me square in the forehead, and I growled lightly.

Gold picked it up and laughed. "A Heavy Ball." He smirked cheekily at me. "I think it's trying to tell you something, Super Serious Gal."

My jaw dropped open, and I cuffed him across the head. "You're such a rude pig!"

He snickered at me and set the Heavy Ball back on the table as Teddiursa started throwing more of them. I kicked them back softly, watching in relief as they landed back on the table unharmed. Gold held up a finger suddenly and rushed out of the room.

"Gold!" I shouted with a frown. "Don't you dare leave me to do this on my own! _You're _supposed to be the babysitter!"

Teddiursa stopped at the sound of my yelling, and I breathed a sigh of relief. But then, it just had to go and find Kurt's hammer. My eyes widened as it grinned, and I ran out of the room with the Teddiursa pounding the ground at my heels.

I ran past the pile of pillows, and Teddiursa quickly got distracted by them, thankfully choosing to pound their fluffiness rather than me. Turning around, I watched it happily hit them and looked around for Gold.

"He better not have skipped out," I muttered under my breath.

It was then that I realized I was still holding the blanket. I looked up at the distracted Teddiursa before slowly stretching it out between my hands. Shuffling towards the Pokemon, I tried to snatch it up, but it bounced away, pounding the ground as it went. It stopped in the middle of the room halfway to the kitchen, gleefully hitting the hardwood flooring in a little circle.

Trying to be quieter, I crouched down and prepared to spring for it. However, I wasn't counting on my idiot companion to come falling from the wooden bars of Kurt's lodge house. Right before I leapt for Teddiursa, Gold hopped off the beam of the ceiling with a wild grin on his face and a laundry basket in his hands.

Teddiursa looked up in time to see both of us coming and neatly jumped out of the way.

And so there was a crash.

Silver

I didn't bother to wait for her because I knew she'd catch up anyways. I'd only known her for, what, five days now? And this seemed to be the routine that we'd settled into.

"Hey! Wait up!"

_Cue the footsteps. _

Soul made it real obvious that she was approaching, her feet hitting the ground specifically to get my attention.

_Now cue the panting. _

She ran up beside me, out of breath and trying to get it back.

_And now cue the mock-glare/reprimanding comment combo._

She frowned at me and crossed her arms. "Would it kill you to wait for once?"

I narrowed my eyes at her and turned back to walking along the streets of Azalea Town. "Not my fault you're slow."

Her cheeks puffed. "I'm not slow! I just bothered to check on our companions for once!"

I whipped my eyes to her. "I pay more attention than you realize."

She raised an eyebrow. "You've got a funny way of showing it."

"That's because I don't."

She watched my face for a second more before a heavy silence settled between us. I could feel the awkward stillness growing and sighed mentally.

"So what's on your list?" I asked tightly, refusing to glance at the dejected look on her face.

She didn't answer me, simply pulled it out of her bag which was identical to Crystal's new one and handed it to me. I raised my eyebrows at her, but she just went back to watching the people on the street ahead of us. I unfolded it to find nothing out of the ordinary; Potions, Full Heals, food, stuff we would definitely need if we were out there for a long time.

The PokeMart was up ahead, and neither of us said anything as we entered. Soul grabbed a cart, and I followed wordlessly as she wove in and out of the aisles, grabbing everything that was on the list without even having to look at it. Shoving my hands in my pockets, I watched her as she went. For once, she made no move to talk, and it wasn't until she had placed one last Super Potion into her cart that she looked up at me.

"Anything we forgot?" She asked with a small frown.

I didn't even bother to check the list. "Yeah, your vocal chords. You seem quiet."

Her frown deepened. "I thought you'd like it better that way."

I shrugged. "It doesn't really matter to me. I've been around Blue long enough that I've gotten used to her constant chattering."

"Does Yellow talk a lot?"

I paused. "…no. She's more on the quiet side."

"Hm," she hummed, looking down at the cart.

"Why do you ask?" I pondered with a raised eyebrow.

Her brown eyes looked up. "I'm trying to get an image of what she's like. I just want to understand why you're all so intent on rescuing her." She saw the shock on my face and held her hands up. "Not that I don't think helping people is important! You all just seem very serious about this!"

I narrowed my eyes. "Well, maybe instead of just randomly committing yourself to the job, you'd bother to actually figure out what it's about."

Her eyes hardened. "Then tell me."

My eyes widened at her boldness, but I nodded nonetheless as we started heading for the checkout. "Fine then. About a month ago, there was a reunion for all the Dex Holders and the new ones from Sinnoh and Unova. There, Red's twin brother, Amber, randomly showed up, although none of us knew exactly for sure why." I scoffed. "I still don't think we do. Anyways, Red has a huge crush on Yellow. …scratch that. I'm pretty sure his feelings run deeper than that. And it's for that reason that he got real prickly when Amber started taking a liking to Yellow. Long story short, Amber ended up working for Team Rocket who for some odd reason has come back. He tried to kidnap her, but I was able to stop him. His partner Melany has been trying to kidnap Yellow as well, and this day a week ago, she finally succeeded in doing so."

Soul's eyes had gone big by now. "…Red? Amber? _Melany_?"

I face-palmed. "Right. You don't know who they are." Letting out a sigh, I stopped as she started unloading things at the cash register. "Okay, so how about I give a little insight on everyone?"

She nodded, grabbing the bags and starting for the doors. "Please do."

"Let's start with the juniors." I looked down at the ground. "The newest ones are from Unova. There's Black, the hot-headed one, and Cheren and Bianca who haven't really been around. I don't think anyone really knows where they are right now."

Soul shook her head. "Okay…"

"Now there's a fourth person to their trio," I explained, "but she doesn't have a Pokedex. Her name is White, and she owns the BW Agency from Unova."

"Hm," she said thoughtfully. "I don't think I've heard of them."

I nodded. "They're just starting in Kanto so I have no doubt it'll spread to Johto soon. Next up is the trio from Sinnoh. Diamond, Pearl, and Platinum."

Her finger shot up. "I remember them! Diamond and Pearl were the funny ones, and Platinum was the fancy one!"

My lips quirked. "In a nutshell, yes. During the events of last month, they were busy travelling through Sinnoh with—"

"Ruby and Sapphire!" Soul cut in, happy that she recalled their names.

I nodded a bit curtly at the interruption. "They're the ones who argue all the time."

She sweat-dropped. "Right. I remember those two were yelling through the Pokegear when you called them."

I did likewise. "But that's nothing out of the ordinary."

Soul put a finger to her chin as we walked down the street. "Emerald is from Hoenn, too, right?"

"Well, he was born in Johto, but essentially, yes. He's usually in Hoenn with Ruby and Sapphire."

She smiled. "Which brings us to the Johto Dex Holders."

I frowned slightly. "Yeah. Gold is the Gold you probably remember. Stupid and reckless."

She nodded sharply. "Yup, that's him."

"Crystal is basically his exact opposite. She's really serious and gets rather annoyed by him a lot. She's athletic, though, like I explained yesterday, so I guess that's something they've got in common."

"Which leads to you!" Soul exclaimed. "The glaring silent one!"

I rolled my eyes and grimaced. "Yes."

She giggled. "So who's left?"

I ran my mind over the four familiar faces of my seniors. "There's Red and Yellow. Red's the champion of the ninth Indigo Pokemon League and the natural leader of the Dex Holders. Yellow was born in the Viridian Forest, and every so often, a child born there will have certain powers. Yellow was one of them, and she can heal Pokemon and people, read her Pokemon's thoughts, and, more recently, taste people's emotions."

Soul raised an eyebrow. "Taste?"

I nodded. "Then there's Green. He's the grandson of Professor Oak."

Her eyes widened. "Really?"

I nodded again. "He's also the Gym Leader of the Viridian Gym and a researcher at his grandfather's lab."

"He sounds busy," she whistled lowly.

"He's got a separate team of Pokemon at the Gym that he's trained to fight without him, and Professor Oak has plenty of other scientists to help him, so if he has to be away, he can be."

Soul's eyebrows furrowed. "Wasn't there one more person?"

An image of Blue popped up in my mind, and I smiled faintly. "Blue. She's like my sister. We were kidnapped when we were younger." The brunette gasped lightly, but I went on unsurprised. "We escaped together, and we've always been really close." I sighed with a sweatdrop. "But she's really mischievous and talks a lot." I glanced at Soul. "Like you."

Her cheeks puffed. "I'm not that mischievous!"

My eyes narrowed. "No, but you do talk a lot."

She thought quietly to herself for a minute. "Is that why you hate me so much?"

I rolled my eyes. "No, I hate you because you just randomly followed me here like an annoying pest."

I paused at what I'd just said, and she stopped walking completely. "…so you do hate me."

Her low tone made me look at her downfallen face, and I pressed my lips together. "It's not that I hate you. I just…don't really like you."

The remnants of her smile had completely disappeared. "That's a perfect definition of it." I didn't say anything, and her fists clenched slightly. "If you didn't really want me to be here, why didn't you just say so?"

I narrowed my eyes at her. "I thought I made it quite obvious. You're just the one who can't take a hint."

Her frown deepened, and she shoved the bags she'd been carrying into my arms. "Fine! I won't bother you anymore!"

She started pulling a Pokeball out of her pocket, and I could see a Noctowl inside it. "Where are you going?"

Her brown eyes were hard as she said, "Why do you care?"

For some reason, something in me was trying to hold her back. "You're not going to say goodbye to Gold and Crystal?"

She paused. Then she slowly returned her Pokeball and stalked off. "Fine. Let's go."

I watched her walk away before syncing my steps behind her. Her arms were crossed, and they stayed that way as we got onto the trail that headed out towards Kurt's house. As we approached the front door, we heard a crash from inside, and our argument was forgotten for the moment. Soul swiftly opened the door to find Crystal and Gold tangled up on the floor, a laundry basket on her head and a blanket thrown across his chest. Jumping on the couch was a Teddiursa, the small Pokemon beating the cushions with a hammer.

"Well what happened here?" Soul asked with a laugh.

The two's heads whipped up in surprise, eyes widening. They looked at themselves, then to us, and back to themselves. Crystal's cheeks were almost as red as the hair on my head as they separated themselves.

"Oh, don't stop on account of us," Soul joked at them.

"We weren't doing anything!" Crystal practically shrieked.

Gold gave a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows to the blunette, but she just took the basket off her head and hit him with it.

Soul held back a giggle, and I shut the door behind us. I set the bags down and narrowed my eyes at Gold. "What are you guys doing?"

He shot up to a standing position and pointed at the Teddiursa. "That…demon! It won't stay still! Kurt told us to watch it and make it sure it didn't get into his workroom while he was gone, but it won't stop jumping around!"

Crystal sweat-dropped. "And now it's got a hammer."

I gave the Pokemon a look and stalked over. It looked up at me with wide innocent eyes, and I snatched the hammer from its hand. "No."

Instead of getting angry or upset, it head-butted me. _Head-butted me. _I landed square on my back, the air rushing out of my lungs. Teddiursa danced beside my fallen form, clapping happily and taking the hammer back.

Gold and Crystal face-palmed and rushed over as it raised the hammer to hit me. Before it could strike, Soul appeared from behind and picked the small Pokemon up in her arms. It gave out a laugh as she started tickling it, and the hammer fell out of its hand harmlessly onto the floor by my head. Crystal grabbed it quickly, and Gold helped me to stand up. The three of us stared in surprise as Soul simply played with Teddiursa and it played right back with her.

"H-How?" Gold said unbelievably.

The brunette looked up and smiled widely. "It only wanted to play! I'm surprised you didn't play with it like you used to with the Pokemon at your house, Gold!"

The dark-haired boy rubbed the back of his head. "Well, it's been a while since I've done that…"

Soul just smiled more and continued playing with Teddiursa. A couple seconds later, the front door opened, and in walked Kurt with Maisy, a soccer ball under the young girl's arm. She dropped it in an instant and rushed for her Pokemon.

"Teddi!" She shouted happily.

Teddiursa jumped from Soul's arms and went straight for Maisy, climbing on her back and roaring lightly. She laughed, and Kurt turned to survey the house. "Not terrible…I guess you didn't fail, Gold."

Gold smirked. "It was easy. I just played with it, and it was happy!"

Soul, Crystal, and I sweat-dropped with narrowed eyes. _Liar._

Kurt nodded. "Well, thank you very much. I'll get you your Pokeballs now, Crystal."

The blue-eyed girl watched as he disappeared into his workroom and came back with a bag of multiple different Pokeballs. He gave them to Crystal who in turn placed them in her yellow shoulder bag.

"Thank you, Kurt," she said kindly. "Might I ask, how is that other Pokeball coming? The one Gold and I saw yesterday?"

"Because you guys were able to get me those last two Apricorns," Kurt explanined, "I was able to finish it last night. The person came by and picked it up sometime before you got here."

Gold and Crystal paused at his words, and I raised an eyebrow slightly. Tapping their backs, I watched them snap out of it and blink at me. Shaking my head, I stalked over to the front door and grabbed the bags.

"We should get going," I reminded them.

They nodded, and Gold bounded for door while Crystal gave Kurt a slight bow before following. Soul waved goodbye to Teddiursa, and I shut the door behind her. Once the four of us were back on the trail, Gold began marching towards the Ilex Forest Gate.

"Time for exploration!" He declared loudly.

Crystal shook her head at him and looked at Soul curiously as the brunette released her Noctowl. "What are you doing?"

Soul blinked in surprise and smiled uneasily. "I think it's time I got going. You guys know what you're doing so you don't need me." She glared briefly at me. "I'll just get in the way."

Gold seemed to have overheard her and came marching back. "You're leaving, Soul? But you just got here."

She gave me a glance, but I wouldn't look at her. I just stared at the gate until she finished saying good-bye to the other two.

"I gave you my Pokegear number," she told Gold. "So don't be afraid to give me a call once in a while."

He shook his head, wide-eyed at the fact that she was leaving. "Yeah, sure."

She nodded with a faint smile and smirked at Crystal. "Keep him in line."

Crystal smirked slightly back. "I always do."

The brunette turned to me again before shaking her head and climbing onto the back of her Noctowl. "I'll see you guys later."

And then she flew off. As she got farther away, Gold and Crystal turned to me with equal expressions of shock.

"What did you say to her?" Gold asked sharply.

But I didn't answer. I just started walking for the Ilex Gate, balancing the bags in my arms and forcing myself to walk on as she disappeared into the blue sky.

Gold

Silver still wasn't talking. I glared at the back of his head as we entered the first trees of the Ilex Forest. My burning stare had no effect on him, though. Crystal seemed to have noticed and smacked me lightly on the arm.

"Stop it," she whispered sternly.

I didn't. She sighed and just hung back at my side.

A little farther into the forest, Silver finally turned around. "So how do you guys want to do this?"

I narrowed my eyes. "What did you say to her?"

He didn't answer again, simply turning to Crystal. She gave a sigh. "Let's find a place to make camp and call Blue. Then we'll set out and look on our own."

The redhead nodded tersely, and we set off again.

After a few more hours of walking amongst the towering trees, we chanced upon a meadow that we could set up camp in. From the small amount of sunlight that managed to penetrate the dense canopy above our heads, twilight was beginning to set in. Our search would have to begin tomorrow.

Silver arranged some firewood in the middle of a circle of stones, and I had Explotaro light them on fire. Crystal kept a few of the thinner sticks and stuck some of the marshmallows Silver and Soul had gotten at the store on the tips. Soon, the three of us were settled around the fire, poker sticks leaning against the rocks so the marshmallows were just above the reach of the licking flames. None of us said anything, and eventually, Crystal cleared her throat awkwardly.

"It was, uh, unfortunate, that Soul couldn't stay," she said softly.

Silver's eyes whipped up, and mine narrowed at him. "Yeah, I was kind of looking forward to spending some time with her again." The redhead glowered at the fire, and I leaned forward. "Seriously, Silver. What did you say to her?"

He paused slightly, surprised that I'd used his actual name instead of some silly nickname like usual. His lips began to move as if he was going to answer, but instead he settled for taking his golden marshmallow and popping it in his mouth. I scoffed under my breath, and Crystal gave us an uneasy glance.

"Maybe it wasn't his fault," she suggested.

I rolled my eyes. "Right. That's why he's not talking."

She bit her lip, and we looked up as he swallowed loudly and sighed. "I just told her it didn't make sense for her to be here."

My eyes widened a little. "Why would you do that?"

He stared at the fire. "Because it's true. She was just being annoying and sticking her nose where it shouldn't be."

"Well," I said simply, "sometimes people don't take a smooth introduction to things. They just jump right in."

He didn't say anything, his eyes focusing more on the fire.

"Maybe it's time we called Blue," Crystal said to break the silence.

Silver nodded. He pulled out his Pokegear as Crystal and I realized our marshmallows were now nothing but dripping black blobs. He hit Blue's number and put the device on speaker. After a few seconds of nothing, she finally picked up.

"Silver! Is something wrong?"

He shook his head even though she couldn't see him. "We're in Ilex Forest now. I want to know which area the tracker shows Team Rocket is in."

There was silence on the end for a few minutes before she spoke again. "Where are you?"

Crystal checked the map on her Pokegear. "We're just north of the southern gate."

"Okay, they're to the northeast of you far into the forest. You guys are going to have to fight through a lot of trees."

Silver looked up at the giants around us. "We'll manage."

"Oh and Silvy~!" Blue said sweetly. The redhead raised an eyebrow, and she giggled. "So a little birdy told me that you have a new friend! Soul was it?"

His eyes widened, and he whipped around to me. I chuckled nervously and shrugged. He glared. "Yes."

"Ooooo!" I could tell Blue was grinning like a madwoman. "What's she like? What does she look like? How do you know her? How old is she?"

Silver sighed. "Bye, Blue."

She made a sound of protest, but he abruptly hung up on her. Crystal smiled faintly as he continued to glare at me. Throwing her stick in the fire, she stood up and selected a Pokemon from her bag.

"Well, if you guys don't mind, I'm going to try and get some sleep," she announced.

Silver handed her a blanket he had in one of the bags, and she took it gratefully. Pressing the button on the Pokeball, she took a step back as Emerald's Snorlax emerged and let out a loud yawn. Carefully climbing up the Pokemon's side, she settled down into its warm stomach and wrapped up in the blanket.

I looked away from her resting form to find Silver still glaring at me. "What?!"

"You told Blue?!" He said curtly.

I smiled slyly. "I thought it was important that she knew who her little brother was hanging out with nowadays."

His eyes narrowed. "What did you tell her?"

I feigned nonchalance. "Oh, just that you had a new lady friend."

He scowled. "Now she's going to be bothering me about it. She probably thinks there's something going on." He groaned. "Great."

My smile slowly fell. "Hey, why did you tell Soul to go away if you liked her?"

His head shot up, cheeks showing the beginning of a blush. "First of all, I didn't tell her to go away. And second, I never said I liked her!"

I tilted my head. "Yes you did."

His jaw dropped. "When did I ever say that?!"

"Yesterday when you guys were talking alone in that field outside Azalea Town."

"Were you eavesdropping on us?" He asked with narrowed eyes.

"No," I crossed my arms with a pout face. "Me and Crys were playing spies."

He rolled his eyes and punched my arm. "So you were eavesdropping."

"Ow!" I cried out. He hadn't punched gently. "Don't blame me! You guys were the ones talking about your futures!"

He raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about?"

I rubbed my arm. "You guys were talking about puzzles and how sometimes they don't always fit together." I pointed to myself proudly. "And, being the smart guy that I am, I realized that you guys were talking about whether or not you would end up together!"

He stared at me. Then he laughed. A short laugh, but a laugh nonetheless. "Arceus, you're more of an idiot than I thought."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

He turned to me and shook his head. "Gold, we weren't talking about ourselves. We were talking about you and Crystal."

I raised my eyebrows. "Say what now?"

He poked the fire with his stick. "Yeah, we were talking about whether or not _you and Crystal_ would end up together."

I tried to get my voice to work. "Why would I be with Super Serious Gal of all people?!"

He gave me one of those looks that said, Really?

"What?!" I said exasperated.

"There's _nothing_ going on between you and Crystal?" He asked seriously.

"I…don't think so…" I said, pondering over it in my mind. "I never even thought about it."

"Hm," he hummed to himself. "Interesting."

I stood up and stretched my arms. "I have no idea where you got that from, Silvy."

He raised an eyebrow as I started heading for Snorlax. "Where are you going?"

I smiled and jerked a thumb up at Crystal. "Super Serious Gal looks a little lonely."

He shook his head as I started walking again. "And you wonder where I got that from…"

I propped myself up onto Snorlax's arm and started climbing onto its huge belly. Thankfully the giant Pokemon didn't mind too much, and I was able to reach the top without disturbing it or Crystal. I saw her in the middle of Snorlax's vast underbelly, the girl lying on her own stomach and facing away from me. Crawling ever so quietly, I made my way over to her and poked her in the side.

"Hey," I whispered. "Are you awake?"

There was a minute of silence. "Go away, Gold."

I smiled under the light of the waxing moon. "Oh, good. You are."

She turned her head around to me and frowned. "No, I'm sleeping."

Her eyes slammed shut once more, and I looked blankly down at her still form. I thought back to earlier today, how red her cheeks had gone when Soul and Silver found us tangled up together. I can't say I was particularly bothered by it, but it was kind of funny to watch her get all flustered like that.

I blinked in surprise. Wait, Super Serious Gal was flustered?

Looking down at her, I decided to test it again. "Are you still sleeping?"

She didn't respond this time, her frown only deepening in annoyance.

I laid down beside her, my eyes watching her face. "Hey, I'm kinda cold. Mind if I share your blanket?"

Again no answer, but her hold on the blanket tightened some.

Smirking, I shuffled forward some. "Oh, it looks as though you're a blanket hugger. It's okay; I'll take care of it."

I took her hand, carefully uncurling each of her fingers. She tensed but refused to be defeated at her game of "sleeping". Once I had released her hand, I slid forward just a smidge more so I could fit under the blanket.

I smiled and gently flicked her nose. "Thanks Super Serious Gal."

She didn't say anything. I didn't see anything at first, but after a few minutes, I found it. Right there on her cheeks. A fresh rosy blush.

So it _was_ possible for Crys to be flustered. I smirked but stopped when I suddenly thought back to Silver and what he'd asked about me and her.

I gave his question a long thought and let out an amused breath. "Nah."

* * *

Me: *opens the door* MAKE WAY!

Max: *enters holding gigantic three layer birthday cake* BEHOLD THE DELICIOUSNESS!

Carlos: *staring wide-eyed*

Gardevoir: *facepalm*

Max: *sets cake on table* Now we can celebrate!

Me: *puts in candles and lights em up* Everyone gather round!

Carlos: *still staring at cake wide-eyed*

Gardevoir: Um, quick question. Why did you bring it here? Why not give it to the twins for their birthday?

Me & Max: O_O

Carlos: *guarding cake* No. Nobody touches the cake!

Me: *looks at clock* Sigh there's only five more minutes left of today. Midnight is almost here.

Max: That's okay! We'll just send them something else!

Carlos: Yay! Cake stays! *starts eating a piece*

Gardevoir: *sighs and watches everyone eat cake* It's like I'm not even here today...

Me: Hello everyone! Surprise to hear from me? Haha! I had a little case of writer's block (-_- okay a big one but I managed to get over it) but I managed to get this written for one of my favorite character's of all time! Happy Birthday Red! And I know he's my creation, but Amber needs a birthday too! ;) So Happy Birthday to you, too, Am!

Review and return!


	6. Chapter 6: Into Ilex Part 1

Me: *laying face down on floor* Oooooooooooooooooooooh...

Gardevoir: *raises eyebrow* Ok, it's been a good month since the last update. What happened?

Max: *freaking out* Her Microsoft Word! It timed out! She can't get into any of her files! They're all locked out!

Carlos: *running in circles* Now she'll never upload again, we'll never get to hear from the reviewers anymore, and Max and I will never see the cyber world again!

Gardevoir: *sweatdrop* You realize you're here now...right?"

Max & Carlos: *stop freaking out and facepalm* Man...

Me: *gets up and marches to computer* Lucky for me, I can still upload what I had before and work on it on this website T.T Thank you website creators! ! !

Gardevoir: *shoves pillow in my face* Yeah, yeah, can we get to the story now? Lots of people have been waiting for your next chapter.

Me: Right, right! **Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon in any universe or dimension, parallel or otherwise. It's just...not mine...**

* * *

Chapter Six: Crystal

I woke up the same way I went to sleep. Blushing and saying, _Gold you're an idiot, _over and over in my head.

The first thing I saw when I woke up was Gold's nose. The dark-haired boy's head was practically cradling mine, his chin resting atop the crest of my bangs. I'd taken off my hat to make sleeping easier, and his face was practically nestled in my hair.

My eyes narrowed. "Hey. Gold." When he didn't respond I poked his stomach. "Gold. Wake up."

He gave a small grunt. "What, Crys?"

I frowned. "Would you mind getting off me?"

His eyes shot open. Looking down at me, he realized the state we were in and rolled over on his side. "Sorry. You're all plushy just like a comfy pillow!"

"What are you trying to say?" I asked suspiciously.

He snickered lightly. "I think Teddiursa already said it with that Heavy Ball."

I rolled my eyes and kicked him across the face. He fell back onto the grass with a protest before shooting back up. "Uh oh."

I tilted my head. "What?"

He grabbed a fistful of the grass beneath him and showed it to me. "We're sitting on the ground. _Not _a Snorlax."

I looked down and realized he was right. Gold stood up as I frantically searched for any sign of the Pokemon. He peered into the trees and shook his head before walking back.

"I have no idea where it went," he admitted incredulously.

I shot to my feet. "I can't believe we didn't wake up or something. It couldn't have gone far."

There was a shuffling sound by the fire, and we turned around to find Silver emerging from a sleeping bag. He took one look at our faces and paused. "What happened?"

"Emerald's Snorlax is gone," I said anxiously.

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "How do you lose a Snorlax?"

Gold shrugged. "Dunno. It just up and disappeared. We have no idea where it went."

Silver tilted his head and pointed behind us. "That trail looks a bit suspicious."

I turned and saw a set of broken branches leading into the forest. Gold must have missed it earlier. He immediately set off into the woods. I huffed in annoyance and hung back to help Silver gather up everything before following. It didn't take us long to find him standing in a different clearing staring at the trees.

"Which way did it go?" I asked him.

"I don't know," he muttered to himself.

Silver stepped ahead. "I'll go this way. You and Crystal take the other paths."

Gold nodded as the redhead merged into the leaves. He headed off to the left so I ventured to the right. This was one of the denser parts of the Ilex Forest so I was constantly shoving branches and such out of the way. Things didn't change for a whole half hour. Eventually I leaned against a tree to take a breather. Pulling my Pokegear from my bag, I punched Gold's number and waited for him to answer.

"Find it?" He asked hopefully.

I sighed. "No. You?"

"Nope. I met up with Silver a bit earlier, though, so we're looking together."

I nodded. "Let me know if anything new comes up."

"Same," he replied before hanging up.

Searching through the contact list, I quickly found Emerald's number and dialed.

"Crystal-chan!" He exclaimed happily. "How are you? Did you guys make it to Ilex Forest?"

"Yes," I reassured him. "Gold's knee is fine, and we're going to start investigating soon. Just need to take care of something."

"What is it?" The blonde asked.

I held a hand to my forehead. "Remember how you gave me your Snorlax?"

"Yeah, oh! And about her! I forgot to tell you, but she's probably going to get hungry soon. Just thought I'd warn you."

My eyes widened. "Hungry?"

"Every so often, like once a week, she'll get really hungry and go on an eating spree. It's a weird habit, but after that, she won't need any food until the next week. I usually let her out into a forest or someplace with trees. She tends to like Pinap Berries, but they're rather hard to find. They normally grow only near water. And when she can't find them or doesn't get to eat, man does she throw a tantrum…."

I grinned. "Thanks, Emerald!"

"For what?"

"You just helped solve my problem," I said pushing off the tree.

He paused a moment. "Snorlax went feeding didn't she?"

"I believe so. I'll talk to you later!" I hung up and entered Gold's number again as I started walking. "Gold," I said once I had a connection, "head toward water."

"You know where the Snorlax is?" He asked surprised.

"She's most likely hungry, and her favorite Berries grow near water."

"There's a lake east of here," Silver said over the line.

"Okay, meet up there," I told them.

They agreed, and the call died off. I pulled up the Pokegear's map and picked out a nearby lake. Another long walk along the trails brought me to a small rocky shore overlooking a rather secluded expanse of water. It wasn't even a minute before Gold and Silver came crashing out of the trees behind me. There was a different rumbling coming from our right, and we ventured slightly from the shore into the trees. I could see a huge dark back in the forest ahead of us and smiled.

"Found her," I told the boys.

Gold gestured forward. "Go put her in her Pokeball then."

I took a step forward, but Silver grabbed my shoulder. "What?"

His eyes narrowed. "Wait a minute. Something's off."

Rustling sounded in the trees beyond Snorlax. The three of us watched from our coverage of underbrush as two girls and a guy emerged from the shadows.

"Here it is," one of the girls sighed. "Now what do we do with it?"

The other girl shrugged. "Let's just take it back with us. We can decide then."

The boy stared at the Pokemon with cynical eyes. "We don't want it causing any problems."

He pulled out a Pokeball and pressed the button. Silver strangely stiffened as out of it came a shiny Luxio. I would've used my Pokedex on it had we not been hiding and it not suddenly started attacking Snorlax. It didn't take long for the Luxio to paralyze and weaken its opponent. Emerald's Pokemon was in the middle of eating the Berries on a nearby bush and grunted as it was attacked. When she'd been weakened, the boy threw a Pokeball hoping to catch her. It only bounced off the Snorlax's belly right back at him.

"What the…?" The first girl muttered.

"Does it already have a trainer?" The second girl asked. Then she flicked her hand. "I'll bet it's just too fat to fit in a normal Pokeball. We can see if he got a Heavy Ball while he was out yesterday."

The boy nodded slowly. "Let's go. We'll come back for it later."

As they left, I pondered over whom _he _was that the girl had been talking about. The boy was the last to leave. His maroon eyes seemed almost reluctant, but eventually the orange of his hair and his Luxio disappeared into the trees.

"How'd you know they were coming?" Gold asked surprised.

The redhead walked out into the clearing. "Just a feeling I had."

I followed after him, running up to Emerald's Snorlax which was still paralyzed. I used a Full Heal and Max Potion on the irritated Pokemon. Then she went back into her Pokeball to rest. "Who were those people?"

Gold nodded. "They just came out of nowhere."

"Did you see what was on their wrists?" Silver suddenly asked.

Gold and I shook our head, and the chrome-eyed boy started into the forest after the other trio. "This new Team Rocket wears black pendants with a bold red TR on them. Grunts wear black woven bracelets, and admins have white-threaded necklaces for their pendants. All three of those guys had the bracelets."

"So you're saying they're Team Rocket?" Gold confirmed.

Silver nodded, and I put a hand to my chin. "Then that means we've found them. Do you think Yellow is here?"

"I don't know," Silver admitted lowly.

We couldn't see the trio ahead of us, but the sound of their feet cracking twigs was light on our ears. I tried not to make any sound, carefully placing my feet like Silver to avoid noise. Gold made up for us, though, crunching leaves and hitting branches accidentally every few minutes like a clumsy Rhydon. Every time I turned away from glaring at him, I'd have to whip back all over again. I was hitting the idiot across the arm yet again when Silver suddenly held out his arm to stop us. Gold's feet quit making noise, and I slowly pulled away. Ahead, we could see the two girls and boy breaking through the tree line ahead.

They headed for an old building set right outside the forest. The windows made me think it was a hospital, but the faint, mysterious noises coming from inside said otherwise. It reminded me of an industrial factory, but there was no exhaustion coming out the top. Perhaps it was just…a really loud hospital….

"It's a laboratory," Silver said lowly.

I sweat-dropped. Or not. "How do you know?"

"See that?" He pointed up at the roof. "There's a small observatory up there. I can see the telescope."

"It's away from cities and quiet," Gold noted. "A good place to watch the stars."

"And hide," Silver muttered darkly.

My eyes widened, and the trio walking soon entered the strange building.

"Well, let's go after them!" Gold announced as he began marching.

Silver practically tackled him aside. "What are you doing?! You can't just go after them! There's probably security and cameras all over the place!"

"But it's…!" Gold flailed his arms at the building. "In the middle of nothing! How are we supposed to get inside unnoticed?!"

Silver glanced up at the cloudy gray sky and sat down. "We wait."

"For what?" I asked curiously.

"A cover," he simply answered.

And so we waited. The rest of the afternoon we stayed within the safety of the trees. Gold got bored every so often and only settled down when Silver snapped at him to. Eventually the redhead just let him run off and entertain himself as long as he didn't attract attention. I decided to stay with Silver, though. We sat for a long while, and by the time evening came, we still hadn't said anything. The clouds were beginning to darken then and not just because the sunlight was dying. Silver sat with his chin in his hands, eyes obscured in thought.

"What are you thinking about?" I finally asked.

His hooded eyes didn't change. "I wonder if Melany's here."

"The Team Rocket Admin?" I pondered.

He nodded. "That guy we saw earlier was one of her grunts. If she's here, then that might mean Yellow is, too."

"You talk about this Melany a lot," I commented suddenly. "You must remember her well."

"Technically, I did 'work' for her for a few days," he said leaning back on his hands. "She figured out pretty quickly who I was. That still surprises me."

"You always were interested in clever people," I sweat-dropped. Then I blinked. "Maybe that's why you didn't get along with Soul too well."

He turned his head. "Excuse me?"

"Well, think about it," I reasoned with him. "She was happy-go-lucky, didn't always think things through, and I'm going to guess a little of a ditz."

"Sounds like a certain someone prancing through the forest behind us," Silver narrowed his eyes at the trees.

"Yeah," I nodded reluctantly, "but the difference there is that you have a past with Gold. You two have been through a lot together, and you've gradually gotten used to him. Soul is entirely new, and since she doesn't strike you as, so to say, your type, you just automatically labeled her as a nuisance."

Silver turned his head with a scoff. "She was one."

I shrugged. "I didn't mind her."

"That's just because you're nice to everybody," Silver pointed out.

I jerked a finger at Gold who flashed by swinging on a forest vine. "Right. Because I don't hit that idiot every five minutes."

"_But you have a past with Gold_," the redhead mimicked me, "so he doesn't count."

"Either way," I shook my head, "I don't see what you're problem with Soul was. To be honest, I kind of miss her…" I searched for the right word. "Bubbliness."

"Bubbliness or not, it's better that she left," Silver muttered. "She would've only gotten in the way."

I thought for a minute. "You know what, I think I know what you're issue is."

He rolled his eyes. "Oh, do tell me because I clearly didn't just explain what it was."

"Silver," I asked him, "you and Blue are the types to plan things out thoroughly before going through with it, right?"

He nodded slowly. "What's that got to do with anything?"

"Well, I think you had everything sorted out when you got here," I said gently. "After Yellow was kidnapped and Blue had you come help us out in the field, you planned out just how we would get her back. Then when Soul showed up in Olivine City and followed you, it added another variable to your equation. She wasn't a part of the plan so you didn't want her here."

He stared at me wide-eyed. "I…."

"Guessed right, didn't I?" I smirked faintly. It melted away into a sigh. "Just because she wasn't initially in the plan doesn't mean you can't make room for her. Who knows, maybe she'll play an important part in getting Yellow back."

Silver didn't say anything. He just glared angrily at the ground, refusing to admit that I was right.

I smiled at him. "You know, this is the most you've ever said to me in a five minute time span."

"I'm…sorry?" He looked up uncertainly. "I don't usually talk like this to anyone. Well, maybe Yellow, but even then it's not a routine thing."

"I don't mind," I said truthfully. "If you ask me, I think you should talk more often."

He nodded slightly and glanced up at the rapidly darkening sky. "It's almost here."

"What?" I asked.

"The storm."

He got up and went to go get Gold. Alone, I turned my face to the clouds and stiffened as a rumble of thunder sounded far in the distance. Nowhere near us, but still loud enough to make me flinch. My eyes were locked on the sky, and I didn't realize that I was clenching my fists until Silver came back with Gold and broke the eerie silence.

"Time for some action!" Gold said excitedly rubbing his hands together.

That's when the wind picked up. Not even a minute later, the rain started in, just a few drops at first and then a heavy drizzle. Silver carefully released his Honchcrow within the cover of the trees and grabbed onto the Pokemon's foot.

"You guys stay here," he said lowly. "I'll send Honchcrow back in a minute."

Gold frowned lightly and pulled out his Togetic's Pokeball. He was currently napping, his wing still wrapped in its white bandage. The raven-haired boy nodded, and Silver set off. Gold put the Pokeball away, and I stared at the sky with wide eyes as the rumbling got louder and the rain fell harder.

"You okay, Super Serious Gal?" He joked. "Not scared of a little thunder are you?"

I scoffed uneasily. "Very funny."

Still, I couldn't watch the approaching lightning without my blood running cold. And the freezing rain wasn't helping either. Gold didn't fail to notice my slightly shivering form. "Hey, seriously. Are you okay?"

I nodded silently, not trusting my voice. Why was I so scared? It was just a storm. Not like I hadn't seen plenty of them already before.

"_Sweet dreams, Miss Glare."_

The words came back so suddenly that I shivered quickly. Where had I heard that?

I covered my face as the rain started coming down in sheets. Silver's Honchcrow was finally coming back for us, and Gold quickly climbed onto his wet back. Peering through my fingers, I saw him reach a hand down for me.

"Let's go, Crys!" He shouted at me over the wind.

A rod of lightning shot across the sky behind him, illuminating his outstretched hand. My feet were suddenly rooted to the ground, and I stared at him with wide eyes.

"What's wrong?" He asked loudly.

"I-I can't move," I whispered in shock. It was like I was paralyzed. My hands wouldn't obey me, and I couldn't get myself to walk towards the Pokemon.

The wind turned harsher, and Gold threw an arm against it. "We have to get out of this storm. Come on!" He leaned down further and tugged my up onto the Honchcrow. Making sure I was secure, he gave the black bird a light pat, and we were off.

I couldn't remember leaving the ground. All I saw were brief flashes of the world around me. Gold's face illuminated by the small shrieks of light. The slick feathers threatening to let me fall off. And the lightning that struck right in front of us a second later.

I screamed, and just like that, I was slipping through Xatee's claws again. I was free-falling through the air, unable to stop myself from impacting the earth. I was going to crash. The rain was blocking my vision. I couldn't see Gold. I had no idea where he was. It was just so much gray. The ground had to be close now. Why hadn't I died yet?

"Crys!"

My eyes shot open. There was Gold, his bright eyes wide. I frantically looked around to find myself lying on the roof of the observatory. Silver was watching with a similar expression, both boys standing still against the rage of the storm around us.

"W-What?" I asked, my voice slightly high-pitched from fear.

Gold silently bent down and helped me up. Silver returned his Honchcrow which I just noticed beside him. The redhead led the way to a small door at the far end of the roof. Gold helped me walk over, his arm supporting mine. The wind was quite brutal, but Silver held the door open for us, and we managed to make it inside. Finally out of the rain, I rested against the wall. All three of us were soaked to the bone, but at least we'd made it inside.

"The storm should have hidden us from the cameras," Silver sighed wearily. "We should be okay."

Gold nodded and turned to find me standing paralyzed against the wall. Feeling was slowly beginning to creep back into my limbs. Yet, as another fit of thunder sounded, my muscles tensed up again.

Gold walked over to me with a tilted head. "Crys?"

I looked up with a slight smile, trying to disguise my stiffness. "Yes?"

He frowned and touched my arm. "You're cold."

I shied away, and he blinked in surprise before letting go. Reaching into his bag, he took out Explotaro's Pokeball. A second later the giant fire bear's heat was warming us up. Flexing my fingers slowly, I momentarily forgot about the storm and let out Arckee. We all huddled together, and the light of Explotaro's flames lit up the air.

"Where are we?" I asked quietly.

Silver glanced around. "It seems to be a small hallway. It probably leads farther into the building."

"Won't someone see us sitting here?" I questioned anxiously.

Silver shook his head. "This way only goes out to the roof. And if you hadn't noticed, there's a massive storm blowing outside."

I glowered as more thunder snapped outside. "There have been a lot of storms lately."

"And there's more to come," Gold said warming his hands over Explotaro. "I was watching the news at the Pokemon Center yesterday morning, and apparently there's going to be a big flurry of them over the next week or two."

"Great," I sighed in annoyance. "So now what do we do?"

Silver slid his wet jacket off. "Well, first I say we get dry again. Then we can move on."

I nodded and took off my sodden hat. Gold did the same with his, and we leaned against the wall with a sigh. Silver shut his eyes, and I didn't think it was a bad idea to take a nap either. I rested my head on the wall and wrapped my arms around myself to ward off the cold. I was finally beginning to nod off when I felt another pair of arms encircle me. My eyes opened, and I felt something nuzzle into my hair. Turning slightly, I saw it was Gold, and he smirked at me.

"Something wrong?" He asked mischievously. "I just thought I'd help warm you up."

I frowned, feeling another blush coming on. "Nope."

I sulkily crossed my arms beneath his hold, and he tightened it slightly. I would not admit to what the red on my face hinted at. I don't even think I believed it. I mean, there was nothing to believe. ...wait, what was I talking about?! I sneakily glanced up at Gold who was breathing softly in sleep. The gentle look on his face only accentuated his boyish features more, and strange enough I felt my heart skip a beat. After a moment, I shook my head. I wasn't quite sure what I was talking about.

"You know, you're only going to confuse yourself," Silver suddenly said. I glanced over to find his eyes boring into me. "Just choose already." He surprised me by smirking slightly. "It's been, what? Four, five years now? Shouldn't you have already made a decision?"

"How could I?! I wouldn't even know what to say, Silver!" I yelled before lowering my voice. I was _not_ going to wake Gold up in the middle of a conversation like this.

"Just make it like those mangas Blue reads," he muttered. "You know, sparkly backgrounds, red faces, the big, 'I like you'. That should do."

"Who said I liked him?!" I protested with red cheeks.

Silver rolled his eyes. "Your guys' denial is so fake I would laugh if I didn't find it pathetic. Are you afraid to tell him or something?"

"I just..." I sighed, trying to find the right words. "Gold flirts with girls he likes. And, well, he doesn't exactly flirt with me so I figured he didn't like me that way."

The redhead raised an eyebrow. "Then what's he doing right now?"

I blushed. "T-This is different. He's just caring about my health I guess."

"Hm," he hummed. "And does he show that kind of thought to the girls you seem him flirting with?"

"I guess not," I admitted reluctantly.

"That's the difference between you and them," Silver explained. "Gold actually cares about you."

"But that doesn't mean he likes me!" I protested. "I care about Red and Green-san, but that doesn't mean I like them!"

"Alright, alright," Silver held his hands up. "Do what you will. But don't be afraid to tell him just because you're afraid of rejection."

I watched as he shifted slightly against the wall. "Silver, don't you like Blue?"

He paused his movements. "Well, yes. She's like my sister."

"I mean more than that." He didn't answer. "Did you not tell her because of the same reason?"

He shrugged. "Maybe, but either way look at what happened. I waited too long, and there's nothing I can do about it now. She's with Green."

My eyes widened as I thought of Soul. "But you still care about her."

"Always," he nodded.

I frowned but said nothing. Arckee's and Explotaro's back paws were near Gold and me, and they stretched out to include Silver on the other side of the small hallway in their circle of warmth.

He nodded his thanks and looked back at me. "All I'm saying is don't take too long. Had it been real, Red would've made the same mistake." I tilted my head curiously, and he shook his. "Nevermind. Just try to get some sleep."

"Okay," I said softly. My eyes were starting to shut on their own anyway.

"By the way, Crystal," he said as he closed his own silver eyes, "Gold flirts with you more than you think."

I looked at him in surprise, but he just feigned sleep. Sighing slightly, I shift beneath Gold's arms to get more comfortable. They were bare and warm on my chilled skin, so it was like an immediate gateway to sleep. I didn't even have time to register the next crash of thunder before I passed out.

* * *

"Crys. Hey, come on, wake up."

I groaned and opened my eyes. Gold was standing over me, hand reached out to pull me up. Reluctantly taking it, I grabbed my hat as I got to my feet. It wasn't wet anymore, and neither were my clothes. The boys had their jackets on again, too, so our little nap must have been enough time for the clothes to dry off.

Silver checked his Pokegear. "It's about ten 'o clock so we should be careful. They're probably getting ready to use the observatory."

"How are we supposed to look for Yellow without getting caught?" I said rubbing my eyes.

The redhead thought for a second before running off. "Stay here."

Gold tilted his head before plopping down. "Look's like we've got some more waiting."

Explotaro walked over and lay his head in the boy's lap. Gold smiled and stroked the Typhlosion's neck before looking up at me. He smirked as I sat down against Arckee's fur. "Sleep well?"

I frowned as my cheeks heated up. "Yes, thank you."

"You're welcome," he smiled cheerily.

I ran a hand over Arckee's hide and listened as he growled in delight. Just then, thunder rippled through the sky, and my fingers stiffened across the soft hairs.

Gold gazed up at the ceiling. "Guess the storm's still going."

I nodded mutely, and he turned to me in surprise. "What's wrong?"

"I'm not sure," I told him. "I just...froze."

He blinked. "Do you think you actually might be scared of thunder?"

"Why would I be scared of thunder?" I asked doubtfully. "I've been around it plenty of times before."

"Yeah, but remember last week?" His eyes went serious. "A bolt of lightening almost made you fall to your death." The black-haired boy leaned forward. "Not to mention, you were screaming bloody murder on the way here. I thought you'd gotten hurt."

"But I don't feel scared," I said with a hand on my chin. "My fingers just stop moving on their own."

"Maybe it's one of those things you react to subconsciously," he suggested, eyeing me with crossed arms.

I just nodded, not quite believing it. There was a noise at the end of the hallway, and we watched the darkness tensely until Silver appeared.

"Here," he handed each of us a small black bracelet. There was a dark pendent with a red TR attached to the woven band. "I got these for you guys to use to pass off as grunts."

"What'd you do?" Gold laughed. "Knock out a few guys and hide their bodies?"

Silver laughed back. "Yeah, just don't go in the janitor's closet."

"Okay," Gold said bemused.

"No, really," Silver said suddenly serious. "Don't go in there."

Gold nodded quickly. Slipping the band on his wrist, he returned Explotaro and plunged us into pitch black. I did likewise with Arckee, and we warily advanced down the hallway.

"Wait, what about you, Silver?" I asked realizing he didn't have a bracelet.

"I already know a few of the grunts here will recognize me," he replied. "So it's best if I search from the shadows."

I nodded and light came from up ahead. Going slowly, we gradually came out on an upper level of the observatory. It was a supported sheet of metal that hung over all the people milling by below. We hung back a little, walking just close enough to peer over the railing. Scientists were scampering around the lab streaming papers everywhere they went with their white coats trailing behind them. I couldn't tell what exactly it was that they were researching, but whatever it was, it must've been a big project.

"Alright," Silver said lowly. "There's a door on the ground floor that leads farther into the building. Look for grunts and try to blend in. See what you can find out."

"Roger," Gold winked with a thumbs up. Then he set off quickly, and I sighed before running after him so I wouldn't be left behind.

We filed past the scientists calmly and quietly as if we belonged there. They must have been really busy for no one even gave us a second glance. We were able to make it to the door Silver was talking about without a single question.

"Well that was rather easy," Gold said slightly dumbfounded.

We started walking down another hall, this one with large windows that showed the brewing sky outside. I gave it an uneasy glance before turning forward again. We heard voices in our path ahead and eventually chanced upon an open set of double doors. Peering cautiously around the edge of the doorway, we saw that it was a mess hall of sorts, numerous grunts scattered around getting a late night snack.

"Should we try in there?" Gold suggested.

My eyes narrowed at a trio of guys who were laughing loudly and throwing their soda cans at each other. "I'd rather not. Let's see if we can find a smaller group of people. Less conspicuous."

We slowly stood up and started to leave. I was hoping to walk away unnoticed, but the cafeteria's wide open doors revealed us to the entire room. And just like I'd thought, the trio of guys took note of us and followed after as we left.

"Where are you guys going?" The head one asked. He stalked straight up to us and leaned in my face. "Don't you want to stay and have something to eat?"

I frowned at the foul smell of alcohol on his breath. Apparently there was no intoxication rule in Team Rocket. "I'd rather not. We're turning in for the night."

"So early?" Another of one of them asked. He looked Gold up and down as if sizing him up. "Why don't we play a game instead?"

Gold took a slight step towards me. "What's it called?"

"Keep away," the head one grinned. "It's a simple game. You stay still, and we keep you away."

Then he lashed out and grabbed my arm. One of them snatched up Gold and held him back as the other two started jostling me back and forth violently.

"Fun, isn't it?" One of the grunts snickered. At this point the world was swirling, and I couldn't tell which it was.

They started throwing me harder, and someone forgot to catch me. I smashed into the ground, hitting my head hard on the smooth floor.

"Oops," the head grunt shrugged. "Guess we have to start over."

"Crys, you okay?!" Gold called out angrily.

My eyes narrowed, and I leaped to my feet just as the two guys were reaching for me. "Would you please be so kind as to step away?" My voice was low and venomous.

One of them laughed. "Aren't you just the little hot head?"

"No, I just don't appreciate being tossed around like a piece of trash," I spit at him.

He frowned curtly. "I think we need to give you a little lesson on manners."

Him and his buddy started forward again, and I shot a foot out, kicking them both straight across the face. There was a collective gasp, and I spun around to see them holding their jaws.

"Dude, this chick's a fighter!" One of the muttered stretching his jaw.

The head guy smirked and raised his fists. "Then let's fight."

I dodged the first blow quite easily. He was too drunk to be a major problem, and I simply blocked all of his hits before twisting his arm and gently placing him on the ground. "And you say I don't have manners," I scoffed irritated. Then his pal came next, but just my luck, he actually wasn't drunk. His blows were quick and hard, just enough of a challenge that I had the least bit of worry. It quickly grew though as the fallen grunt got up and started coming at me, too. Soberness was kicking in sooner than I'd expected.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Gold yelled. He ripped himself out of the third guy's arms and threw a Pokeball. A second later Explotaro was barreling over the clear-headed grunt, giving me a fighting chance. Gold was grappling with his previous restrainer, surprising me with how well he was holding up with the guy's street fighting moves. Then I had to focus on my own fight before I took a fist to the face.

In order to avoid that hit, I bent down and shot out my legs. They connected with the drunken man's knees which immediately gave out and sent him tumbling to the floor. I stood over him with my hands in fists at my side.

"What?" He mocked me. "Gonna give me a lecture now?"

I bared my teeth. "No, but-!"

Then there was a crash of thunder. I could see it shoot through the sky just as my blood was injected with ice. My limbs were instantly paralyzed by the sound, and the worst part was that the guy in front of me immediately saw it happen. He stood up slowly, puffing with the effort. When he was towering over me again, he smirked darkly.

"Oh? Is our little rebel scared of thunder?" He snickered rudely. "That's too bad."

I fought to make my fingers move, but they wouldn't listen. The thunder was still echoing loudly outside. The guy raised his fist to strike, and I shut my eyes sharply. A second later there was the sick sound of a punch but no pain on my body. My eyes shot open to see Gold standing over my attacker, breathing heavily with his hand still poised. The other two guys were also on the ground with Explotaro watching them to make sure they didn't get up.

Gold turned to me with wide eyes and grabbed my shoulders. "You okay?! Did they hurt you?!"

I shook my head roughly and pushed him away. "I can take care of myself, Gold!"

He grinned and laughed breathlessly. "You're fine. I didn't know you could fight so well, Super Serious Gal!"

"That's because I have you to practice on," I punched his arm slightly.

There was the sound of footsteps, and we turned around to see the orange-headed boy from the forest earlier today swiftly approaching. "What happened here?"

Gold frowned down at the guys on the floor. "We got attacked by some drunks."

The boy sighed. "I've been telling the admin that we shouldn't give the grunts alcohol. Did either of get hurt?"

"I don't believe so," I shook my head, wincing as it throbbed lightly. "But I may have hit my head."

"The medic ward is just down this hallway to your right," the boy instructed me. He turned to Gold. "I'll have you explain this incident to the admin so he'll have a better explanation of what happened here. Don't worry about these fools; I'll send someone to take care of them."

I was bowing my thanks when thunder sounded again, and I stiffened. The boy turned back and tilted his head at me. "Are you alright?"

My eyes found Gold's, and I smiled brightly. "I'm fine! I just have...astraphobia." It felt so weird for that sentence to be coming from my mouth, but after letting it sink in for a second, I couldn't help but accept that it was true. For some odd reason or another, I was now scared of thunder.

The boy blinked slowly and gestured towards the ward. "Okay, well the room is just down the hall so you should be fine."

I nodded and watched as Gold returned Explotaro and followed after the bright-haired guy. He gave me an uncertain glance, but I nodded in reassurance just as he disappeared around the corner. Scoffing, I stepped over the bodies on the floor and made my way to the medic ward. There were few people inside, two of them I recognized as the girls from the forest with the boy. One of them was treating a patient, and the other noticed me right away. She rushed over with a worried frown. "Is everything alright? I thought I heard a fight from down the hall!"

I nodded uneasily. "Yeah, I fell on my head..."

"Oh!" She ushered me over to a cot. "Let's have a look at it!"

I sat there stiffly as she ran a hand over my hair to search for a bump or any blood. After a minute, she smiled. "You should be fine! I don't think there's anything seriously wrong! Just take some aspirin if it starts throbbing or hurting."

"Thanks," I nodded gratefully.

The door opened, and we looked up to see the orange-haired boy. He walked over to us and looked at me. "The admin wants to see you, too. He want's to have the full story."

"Alright," I answered, following him hesitantly to the doorway. The girl waved back cheerfully and shut the door behind us.

I walked silently behind the boy. He took us through a bunch of hallways that led us to what seemed like the deepest part of the building. After a good while of striding beneath the flickering light bulbs, we arrived at a dead end. He stood against the wall to let me pass and turned to walk away once I had reached the door. I waited until he was out of sight to turn the knob.

The door opened with a slight creak. The room inside was mostly dark. I couldn't make out any figures, but there _was _a strange shifting noise. I walked a few steps forward and froze when the light fell on a face in the back of the room. It was Silver tied up with duck tape over his mouth. Beside him was Gold who managed to tear his off at that moment. "Run, Crys!"

The door slammed shut behind me. The room was plunged back into blackness, and I felt someone over my shoulder.

"We meet again, Miss Glare."

My breath caught in my throat. It was him.

* * *

Me: *looking through closet* Hm, now that the whole computer thing is taken care of, I can deal with what to wear for school tomorrow!

Max: What's the occasion?

Me: *sweatdrop* Homecoming week. *glare* I ain't working on no float this year. *shakes head* Nope! NOT going through that again!

Carlos: ...so what's the theme for tomorrow?

Me: *strikes a pose* Nerd day!

Gardevoir: *snicker* Go as yourself; it's perfect!

Me: *narrows eyes* I was going more along the lines of a Pokemon nerd. I'll probably just wear my Blue cosplay and throw a Pikachu hoodie with ears over it. Everybody loves Pikachu! *looks down*

Carlos: *tilts head* What is it?

Me: There's just one more problem.

Max: What?

Me: *looks at stuffed animals* Do I carry Pikachu plush or Mew plush?!

Gardevoir, Max, & Carlos: *sweatdrop*

Me: ...so? ? ? How have you all been?! T.T I feel so bad for not updating in forever, but having all my documents locked out did scare me Dx and school starting up did not help :c But hey! New chapters make everyone happy right? *wink* You guys know what to do! Let me know your thoughts! Review and return!


	7. Chapter 7: Into Ilex Part 2

Me: GASP! I uploaded within a week this time! Whoo!

Gardevoir: *sweatdrop* It's a homecoming miracle

Max: Homecoming! Yay!

Carlos: I hope there are doughnuts... O_O

Me: *shakes head* You guys have fun! I'm not going anywhere near that place!

Max: *whining* Why not?! We can be all dressed-up together!

Me: *shrieking* That's why! Eon don't dress up!

Carlos: *looks at Gardevoir*

Gardevoir: *waves him over* Idea.

Max: **Disclaimer: Eon doesn't own Pokemon in any way. Maybe that would cheer her up enough to come with me...**

* * *

Chapter Seven: Gold

I hadn't warned Crystal fast enough. The door was shut now, the guy's voice melting into the darkness. A light flickered on and revealed him standing over by the light switch. His black glasses concealed his eyes, and the gray fedora on his head covered his russet-red hair. He locked the door with a key and smiled at Crystal whose back was still to him. Her bag had fallen off her shoulder, and she was staring at him wide-eyed.

"It's good to see you," he said cheerfully, trying to make her comfortable. "How's that detergent working out?"

"Why are you here?" She finally managed to say.

He stalked over to the desk beside me and Silver. Sitting down, he took off his hat and scarf. Crystal's eyes widened further when she saw the white-threaded TR necklace.

"I'm working," he smirked.

"You're one of the people who kidnapped Yellow?" She asked lowly.

"Not directly, but yes," he shrugged nonchalantly. "I wasn't there when it happened."

"Where is she?!" I barked at him, angrily tugging at the binds on my wrists.

He leaned sideways and patted the duct tape back into place over my mouth. "If you're looking for you little blond friend, she's not here."

Crystal frowned. "She's not?"

"Nope," the guy shook his head. "We've got her at a different base."

The blunette slammed her palms on the desk. "Where's Yellow-san?"

He smirked slightly. Fast as the lightening outside, he nimbly jumped over the desk behind Crystal. The redhead got up swiftly before she could react, though, and twisted her arms behind her back. "I believe _I'm _the interrogator," he told her smartly. Retrieving a small roll of duck tape from his back pocket, he bound her hands and sat her beside me before doing the same to her feet. When he was done, he took the tape off our mouths. "There. I think I'll allow talking now."

"What is it with you admins and duck tape?" Silver muttered stretching his jaw. "Melany always had it, too."

The guy twirled the roll on his finger and slid it back in his pocket. "Comes in handy."

"So who are you exactly?" I asked with narrowed eyes. "First you helped Crys at the store, and now you're holding her captive. Bipolar much?"

The admin picked up Crystal's bag with a laugh. Setting it on the desk next to where he'd put mine, he took the sunglasses off his face to reveal ice blue eyes. "My name's Drake. And the reason you saw me at the store was because I was doing some recon on you guys."

"You knew about us then?" Crystal asked incredulously.

"Yeah, we always research possible threats," Drake grinned. He got up and grabbed some portfolios from the desk. "Melany gave me all your files." He looked at Silver. "Silver Gin, red hair, silver eyes, excellent senses, very clever, and a glaring demeanor."

Silver proved that last comment true, and Drake chuckled before moving on to me. "Gold Kiniro, black hair, gold eyes, athletic, mischievous gambling habits, and a tendency to be a major idiot."

"Hey!" I protested, but he flipped to the last folder.

"Crystal Kesshou, blue hair, blue eyes, experienced fighter, renowned catcher..." He smiled mockingly at her. "And exceptionally determined in nature."

The girl's frown deepened. "So? How does that help you?"

Drake snapped the folder shut. "Well, for one it helps us identify you when you try to trespass in our bases."

He eyed Silver who scoffed. "You're lucky that loose beam made me lose my hold on the ceiling. You would've never found me."

"Either way," Drake shook his head, "after we've researched any and all threats, we try our best to...subdue them."

"Subdue?" I tiled my head.

Crystal breathed in sharply. "It was you, wasn't it? In the caves at the Ruins of Alph?"

Drake winked. "You _are _quite the little fighter like my grunts said. You almost knocked out my Skarmory!"

"Why are you smiling about that?!" I yelled with a curled lip. "We almost died!"

"No," he waved his finger. "Your little friend came and got you before things got too bad. Besides, I don't like killing people. Not good for the conscience, you know?" He sat down on the floor in front of us with a sigh. "Not like I would've been able to if I wanted anyways."

Silver's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean?"

The other redhead fiddled with his pendent. "I'm not technically allowed to."

"I find that hard to believe," Crystal muttered. "Villains don't normally have a problem with stuff like that."

"It wasn't my decision," Drake rolled his eyes at her. "It was my higher up's."

"Who's that?" I asked curiously.

"Melany." He crossed his arms. "She's second in command of the whole organization."

"What?" Silver asked in surprise.

Drake nodded. "Team Rocket began gathering again a little over a year ago. It was headed by a new boss, but all we know him by is Master. Melany is the only one who actually knows who he is. She's the only one who's seen him."

"Hold on," I shook my head. "Why are you telling us all this? Aren't you supposed to be the bad guy?"

"Yeah," Drake smirked. "But-"

"Don't tell me this is one of those times where the villain is going to kill the victims so he just goes ahead and reveals the whole plan to them," I said with wide eyes.

The admin blinked. "Well, actually-"

"'Cause if that's the case," I told him with blazing eyes, "then we're not going down without a-!"

"Gold!" He yelled sharply. "If you would just shut your trap, then you'd hear me say that I don't plan on killing you."

"Wait, what?" Crystal narrowed her eyes in disbelief. "What are you going to do to us then?"

Drake sighed heatedly. "Arceus, you make us sound like ruthless barbarians. I _was _going to just keep you here and make sure you don't go anywhere. When we're done getting what we need, we'll give Yellow back to you."

"Huh?!" The three of us shouted in shock.

"She has something that Master needs for his plans," Drake explained leaning against his desk. "We had no intention of keeping her forever. Just long enough for us to get that something. She can go free once the process has been completed. ...if she manages to live through it."

Silver's eyes hardened. "She could die?"

Drake stood up and stretched his arms. "Ah, I'm done talking for now." He yawned comically. "Time for bed!"

"Wait!" Crystal shouted as he started for the door. "If you're going to let us go later on, then why tell us any of this?"

"Because," he smiled cheekily at her. "By the time I do that, it'll be too late for you to do anything."

"Then why not just finish explaining everything to us?" She asked trying to get more information out of him.

He laughed. "But it wouldn't be fun then, now would it?"

Crystal let out a soft sigh as he unlocked the door and left, locking it behind him. "Well that was...interesting..."

"To say the least," Silver muttered.

"For a second there I thought he was going to tell us where Yellow was," I said with wide eyes.

"No," the redhead shook his head. "It's too early for that."

Crystal shook her hands irritably. "Either way, we need to find a way to escape. If Yellow-san's in danger, then we need to find her as soon as possible."

"Right." Silver looked at me. "Gold, turn around and lift your arms. I'll see if I can undo the duct tape." I stretched forward as far as I could and felt a tug at my hands. After a minute, he sighed and sat back up. "I can't move my wrists enough to tear it."

I looked up at the desk where Crystal's and I's bags sat. Scrunching my knees to my chest, I started inching myself across the floor.

"Um, Gold?" Crystal sweat-dropped. "What are you doing?"

"Getting Explotaro," I said nonchalantly while scooting. I finally reached the desk and craned my head over the edge. I couldn't really stand up, so I leaned forward and caught my bag's strap between my teeth. Jerking back, it came off the desk along with a stack of folders that fell down everywhere. I shrugged and again used my teeth to open the zipper. Explotaro was impatiently beating on his Pokeball, and I managed to roll it out onto its button. He appeared a second after the flash of light and snapped the duct tape on my wrists apart with his claws. He left me to take care of my feet so he could release Silver and Crystal as well.

She stood up once free and stretched her back. "That was awfully stiffening."

Silver rubbed his wrists and grabbed a paper clip from the desk. "I'll try the lock."

As he started twisting the clip, I returned Explotaro and bent over to pick up the folders. One had opened and revealed a small picture of Crystal. She was wearing her lab coat so I assumed it was from her lab assistant ID. "Look's like they do have files on us, Super Serious Gal," I said as she walked over.

The blunette bent down and picked up another folder. "Here's Silver." His portfolio had two pictures. One was of him walking down the street, maybe from a security camera. The other was an up-close of him during some battle, but his eyes were strangely baby blue.

"Hey, Silvy," I called over my shoulder. "You're eyes aren't blue."

The redhead glanced up a moment and went back to work. "Long story."

Shrugging, I grabbed another folder and saw it was mine. My picture was during the tournament at the Hoenn Battle Frontier. I was still wearing my old clothes that were torn up from the fight with Guile Hideout. "How did they get all this information on us?"

"I have no idea," Crystal said with wide eyes. She picked up a few more files. "They've got everybody, though." I looked at the three she chose. "Here's Sapphire, Diamond, and Black."

I snatched up a couple more. "Cheren and Ruby."

We set the portfolios on the desk and started organizing them. Emerald's was added to Ruby and Sapphire's, and we put Bianca with Black and Cheren's. Diamond's was joined by Pearl and Platinum's, and we set our three together as well. Then there were our seniors'. I stacked up Green and Blue's files, waiting for Crystal to put Yellow's on top next. When she didn't, I turned to find her staring at the opened contents.

Silver suddenly sighed at the door. "I tried. It's a good lock. I don't even know if Blue could break it."

He walked over, and Crystal nodded, silently looking at Yellow's folder. I looked over her shoulder at the picture of the blonde fishing. "Yellow de Viridian Grove," I read. "Blond hair, yellow-green eyes, gentle nature, adequate battler, powers include healing people and Pokemon, reading Pokemon's thoughts through touch, temporary level increase, limited telekinesis, and reading people's emotions through taste." I blinked. "She can taste emotions?!"

Silver nodded. "It's something new she acquired after waking up from her coma."

"What, does she like, lick people?" I held back a laugh.

I got knocked to the ground by a particular black-gloved hand. "No, Gold, she just touches something of theirs. Each person has a different taste which allows her to feel what they're feeling."

"Is it like a variety of lollipop flavors?" Crystal asked curiously.

"Not exactly," Silver waved his hand. "It's more like a certain, distinct object. For example, Yellow said that Blue's feelings tasted like the ocean and mine the rain."

"That's so cool!" I said excitedly. "I wonder what I'd taste like!"

The redhead rolled his eyes. "Yours would taste like idiot." I let out a scoff in protest, but he just went over and set to unlocking the door again.

"So," Crystal said as she set Yellow's file on top of Blue's. "It looks like they have information on every Dex Holder. Even Cheren and Bianca." She tilted her head. "Whatever did happen to them?"

"Something about helping Professor Juniper in Unova for a while I think," Silver put in from his attempts at the door.

Crystal nodded and turned to find me looking at the last folder in my hands. "Is that Red's?"

I nodded as well and flipped through his papers. Halfway through, I paused, seeing a different picture show up. "Not just his."

Crystal's eyebrows furrowed as she looked at the image. "Amber Aka, black hair, golden-orange eyes, fun-loving personality, excellent battler, fear of guns, in possession of objective 1A." She frowned slightly at that. At the bottom of the page was another phrase. "Contained/Free."

"Contained?" I raised an eyebrow.

Crystal flipped back to Red's first page and saw that his only had the word, 'Free', at the bottom. "That means they detained him at some point." Her eyes narrowed. "Why would he be a potential threat if he was a member?"

I shook my head. "I'm not sure." Something caught my eye suddenly on the floor. Kneeling down, I reached under the desk and retrieved a file that had slid beneath. "Huh? We've already gone through all the Dex Holders. So who's is this?"

Crystal flipped the edge over, and we found ourselves looking at a girl neither of us recognized. She had crimson eyes, brighter than Reds, and more like Ruby's. Her hair was emerald green, hanging to her shoulders with big bangs that covered one of her eyes. "Jade Eraberashi, green hair, red eyes, quirky and slightly awkward, excellent strategist, Pokemon breeder, powers include limited telepathy and telekinesis."

Silver paused. "She's from Viridian, too?"

Crystal shook her head. "I don't know, but-" Her eyes widened. "Apparently she's no longer a threat."

She pointed at the bottom of the page. I looked down at the bold word. "Terminated." My eyes widened, too. "I thought Drake said they didn't like killing."

"He said _he _didn't like killing," Crystal clarified. "And possibly Melany, too. That doesn't mean the other admins and grunts don't."

Silver suddenly hit the lock angrily. "Damn it!"

"We're stuck in here aren't we?" Crystal sighed.

"I'll get it," the redhead growled lowly. "Just give me a little bit."

I reached into my bag for my Pokegear. "I'll send a shout-out for help!"

"Who's going to be able to come?" Silver shouted in exasperation. "The Sinnoh kids are on the other side of the region, and Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald are at least a few hours away!"

I was already creating the message. "Then I'll send it to Sapphire and hope those three can get here in time."

There was a noise on the other side of the door just as I was looking through my contact list. All three of us paused with wide eyes, and Silver had just enough time to jump back as the door swung open.

There stood Drake, blinking in slight surprise at the sight of us up and around. He smiled gently and locked the door behind him. "I guess it's a good thing I came back to check on you guys." Something popped out from a Pokeball he pulled out of his pocket. Before any of us could react, we were bound all over again, this time with sturdy rope instead of duck tape. As our feet were tied up, a figure melted into view, and we saw that our attacker was a Duskull. Drake returned the Pokemon and watched us as we glowered at him. "Now don't be like that. I told you I'd let you go."

"Once Yellow dies," Silver spat.

"Or lives," Drake pointed at him. He took all the files and piled them inside one of the desk's drawers along with our bags. "I told you she may be strong enough to live." He turned to Silver. "Pockets please?"

The redhead glared as Drake reached into his jacket and took his Pokeballs. Placing them in the drawer, too, he locked everything up with another key, making sure that we wouldn't be getting free again any time soon.

"I thought you didn't like killing people," Crystal said with narrowed eyes. "So how can you be so uncaring about her life?"

Drake's mouth snapped shut, and he unlocked the door to leave. Right before he closed it, the guy paused. "Because I'm almost certain she will survive." And with that he left again. This time we heard him station a grunt at the door and knew our way out had been cut off.

I beat my foot on the leg of the chair. "That guy's really starting to get on my nerves."

"Arceus, he's about as bad Melany when it comes to mystery," Silver muttered.

"So what do we do now?" Crystal sighed.

"There's got to be some way out," Silver muttered looking around.

"How?" She retaliated. "The door's guarded, there's no windows, and even if there was a way to escape, we can't because we're all tied up, and Drake locked our Pokeballs in a drawer!"

Silver raised an eyebrow at her. Then he let out a low whistle. It echoed through the room, and after he stopped, a rustling noise sounded from the drawer with everything in it. Following that was a strange clicking, and a second later, Weavile was popping his head out of the desk.

Crystal blinked. "H-How?"

The redhead scoffed as his Pokemon leaped over and snapped his bindings. "I don't just train them to battle."

She only nodded as Weavile set to freeing her and me. We snatched our bags out of the drawer, and I decided to take Red/Amber's file along with the unfamiliar Jade's. Something was just nagging at me to bring them along.

"Well, that just leaves our way of escape," Crystal said as she checked on all her Pokeballs.

I glanced around for an idea and grinned when I spotted one on the ceiling. "Look, Crys."

The blue-eyed girl stared above our heads in thought. Then she blinked when she saw the air duct. "That could work."

I stood on the desk and reached for the duct panel. After fighting with it for a minute, I pulled it out and set the metal sheet on the floor. "Onward then!"

Climbing into the duct, I reached back down to help Silver and Crystal. Once everyone was in the airway, we set off.

"So which way are we going?" I asked leading the way.

"I'm not sure. Just be quiet," Silver said sternly.

"Yeah, yeah," I waved a hand back at him. A second later the floor fell beneath me, and I crashed to the ground. A groan escaped my lips as I stood up.

"Gold!" Crystal yelled from above.

"I'm fine," I reassured her. My fingers fumbled for a light switch and eventually found one. She and Silver were watching from the duct overhead, and I saw that I was in a closet. Lab coats hung on the wall and normal ones opposite them.

"Can you get back up?" Crystal asked anxiously.

"I don't think so. It's too high." I glanced at the lab coats. "But I should be fine. Let's split up. It'll make it harder for them to catch us all!" Putting my hat and goggles in my bag, I threw it across my side and pulled a lab coat on over. "First one back to the campsite wins!"

They had barely any time to protest before I was slowly inching out the door. Outside I saw that I was back in the observatory. The clock wasn't far from midnight, and it seemed the later it got, the more hectic the scientists became.

"The storm is still going on," I heard someone in the crowd say. "At this rate, we won't get any data."

"Don't worry," a deeper voice said. "There will be a pocket of clear skies within the next hour. We can get it then only if we're fast."

I could hear them getting closer but had no idea what to do. So I turned to look out the window and put a hand on my chin as if I were studying the dark swirling clouds.

"Hey, you," came the deeper voice. I turned around to see two guys approaching with lab coats on. The blond one crossed his arms. "Are you on duty?" I just blinked, and he raised an eyebrow. "What's your station?"

I suddenly remembered them talking about data and smiled. "I'm one of the people who sorts the data." I pointed at the storm. "I'm just waiting for it to be collected."

I was mentally crossing my fingers so bad I thought my brain might snap. A moment later the brunette beside the blonde sighed. "You might was well head in and get started. They got behind on yesterday's records so there's some catching up to do."

He grabbed my arm, and I tripped along as he took me to a room on the other side of the observatory. There were three big screens hanging on the walls that acted as monitors for the scientists' computers. They were currently typing away, and the brunette led me over to a table in the middle of the room.

"The documents for Project 1 go in the blue bin, and Project 2 goes in the red," he said. "But you already knew that."

I nodded quickly and gave a brief smile. "Right."

I sat down at the table, and the guy turned to leave. "We'll give you more once we record tonight's data."

I watched him go and stared at the papers in front of me. My eyes widened. "What the...?" I had no idea what anything on the papers said. Most of them just had a random compilation of numbers and letters in no particular order. A few had a small picture to go with, but they were mostly weird machines that instantly bored me. So I just started randomly throwing the papers in the bins. Not like I was going to be here long enough to be punished for it anyways.

My eyes scanned the room as I slowly divided the pile of documents. There was the door that I'd come through, but other than that I could see no other way escape. It was fairly open, like a set of French doors, so I couldn't sneak out without getting noticed. This room didn't have any windows, and the ceiling was way too high to escape via duct works again. My best bet was getting back into the main part of the building and finding my own way out.

Thinking to myself, I went back to briefly focusing on the papers. I was about to zone out again when something caught my eye. One of the sheets had a picture of a Pokeball on it, but it didn't look like the normal red and white sphere. It was broken down into many colors with spots of black freckled on it. Lines ran all over like a system of veins and met in the middle at the release button. What on Earth it could be, I had no idea. And the jumble of scripture didn't help me to decipher it at all.

I squinted my eyes at the picture. "Weird design...maybe Silvy will know something about it."

Just as I was slipping the paper into my bag, a bell of some sort went off, and the researchers at the computers immediately looked up. Then the room erupted into chaos.

"Ready the telescope!" "Run the electromagnetic analyzers!" "How long do we have?!" "Has anyone seen the map tracers?!" "WHERE'S MY COFFEE?!"

I watched as they all ran out of the room with random papers and gadgets piled in their arms. Trying to blend in, I bundled up one of the piles on the table and rushed out after them. People were flying around even faster then before, and I froze as the lights suddenly dimmed. Soon they went out completely. My eyes slowly adjusted to the dark, and I gasped silently at the roof. It was made of glass like the windows, allowing for a clear view of the stars in the sky. The storm finally had stopped for a moment, the waxing moon casting silver light across the faces of everyone in the room. I would never say it out loud, it'd be _way_ too girly, but I had to admit; it really was a pretty sight.

Then the machinery started to kick in. Buzzing noises resonated all over the place mixed in with the sound of excited murmuring.

"What are they doing?" I muttered under my breath.

I must've been standing by a printer for an ancient rumbling about scared me half to death a second later. Glaring at the mechanical monster, I blinked in surprise at what came out. I took the sheet in my hands and stared at it closer. I could've been wrong, but it looked oddly like a map of the constellations. Arrows were traced throughout the stars in a certain pattern, almost like it was trying to mark a path.

"How'd it turn out?" came a voice from behind me.

I turned to see that it was the blond guy from before. "Uh, good."

He took a look at it and nodded. "If you wait another half hour, you can get all their data at once."

"Ok," I nodded clenching the paper. "I'm going to, uh, go use the restroom."

He gave me a funny look. "Alright then. Don't be long or you'll get swamped in files."

I flashed a smile and headed for the way out of the observatory. I almost started laughing. Was it really this easy to just walk out of here without getting caught?

I froze as Drake suddenly appeared at the entrance and started walking for the massive telescope. I rolled my eyes as I stood hiding behind some machines watching him. Of course it wasn't that easy.

Peering out, I saw him scroll his finger on a touch screen device of some sort. He looked up at the stars and seemed to trace them with his hand before scrolling on the device again. When I thought he was well distracted, I took a few steps out towards the exit.

But of course an alarm had to go off _just then_!

The roof started flashing red light, and a siren screamed in my ears.

"CODE RED, CODE RED! UNIDENTIFIED PERSONS ON THE PREMISES!"

I sweat-dropped as Drake's head shot up, and he saw me standing there with one foot poised to run. Giving him a small wave, I shot away like a rocket.

The lab coat fell off as I raced through the hallways. I could hear grunts pounding the ground behind me and aimed for the front doors. My best bet was to go for the forest. I'd have a better chance of losing them once I got lost in the foliage.

I was nearing the main exit when someone came sprinting from the hallway across from mine. I grinned mischievously when I saw that it was Crystal. Her cheeks were flustered, and her eyes lit up as we met up.

"So that alarm was you, huh?" I joked as we ran along.

She puffed out a breath. "We can worry about that later! Silver managed to get away, but I have no idea where he went!"

"Let's focus on getting outside first," I panted looking over my shoulder. We were attracting quite the crowd. By the time we finally got outside, there were at least twenty grunts on our tail.

We didn't let up our speed as we approached the woods. Crystal tripped and almost fell, though, as Silver suddenly dropped out of the sky beside us from his Honchcrow.

"Peck!" He called out while keeping up with our sprint.

His Pokemon began dive-bombing the grunts chasing after us, but there were just too many of them. We only made it forty feet from the tree line before being fully surrounded in a circle of panting Team Rocket members. Honchcrow was suddenly struck with an X-Scissor attack and retreated to Silver as a Skarmory shot by in the sky. The Dark type hovered angrily above its trainer's head as the opposing Flying type landed and off it jumped Drake.

"It's not time for you guys to go yet," he told us sternly. "I would appreciate it if you just came back with us nice and calmly." We just glared at him, and he sighed. "No? Alright then." He snapped at the grunts, and the front line released a ring of Haunters and Gengars that smiled maliciously at us. "Hypnosis."

All their eyes lit up, and Silver immediately looked up at Honchcrow. He nodded and shot down out of the sky, enveloping the three of us within his wings. I realized that it was blocking out the effect of Hypnosis and waited patiently until it released us. Drake was frowning and pocketed the touch screen that was still in his hand.

"Fine," he said tightly. "We'll take out your Pokemon first. Skarmory, X-Scissor!"

The Steel type was bracing itself to strike when another figure streaked by and stunned Skarmory enough to stop its attack. My eyes widened at the brown-feathered Noctowl circling back, and I grinned at the girl on its back.

She smiled in return and cupped her hands over her mouth. "Take cover!"

Honchcrow didn't hesitate to protect the three of us again. The Noctowl came zooming in low, releasing an Extrasensory that reeked havoc on the Haunters and Gengars. They even flinched, and the Noctowl took the opportunity to land. Using Reflect, it created a safe box around us and gave its trainer time to jump down and approach us.

She lifted some of Honchcrow's feathers and smiled. "I heard you needed some help?"

Silver's eyes widened, and he slowly stood up before her. "Soul? What are you doing here?"

The brunette rubbed her arm. "Gold said you guys were in trouble."

Crystal turned to me. "I thought you were sending that to Sapphire."

I checked the message and sweat-dropped. "I guess I clicked Soul instead."

Silver rolled his eyes and cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Well, thanks for coming."

She eyed him warily for a second before smiling gently. "Just trying to be helpful."

A cracking noise rang through the air, and we saw that the enemy Pokemon were beating on the Reflect barrier. Drake and his Skarmory especially. He was glaring at us with a force equal to that of his Pokemon's smashing power. A Haunter used Hypnosis, and it managed to break through the force field, striking Crystal dead on. I quickly caught her slumped form and turned to the other two. "We have to get out of here!"

Soul waved her Noctowl over and gave Silver its Pokeball. "You guys can get into the forest and disappear in time before the barrier breaks."

I placed Crystal on Honchcrow's back. I knew he wasn't strong enough to carry three people, and I guess so did Soul.

"And how do you expect to escape?" Silver asked her with a raised eyebrow.

Soul shoved him towards her Pokemon. "Look! Noctowl isn't strong enough to carry two people yet, and this is the best I can come up with!" She grabbed one of her Pokeballs and released her Raichu. "I'll just fight my way out. Now you need to go!"

Her Noctowl seemed to have picked up on the planned and tugged Silver onto its back before lifting off. I climbed onto Honchcrow behind Crystal and looked at Soul worriedly. "Is this really okay?"

"Gold, we don't have time argue!" She shouted at me. "The barrier will only hold for a few more seconds! Now get going!" Her Raichu made its trainer's point by gently shocking Honchcrow into the sky after Noctowl.

The Flying types didn't have a choice. We quickly rose thanks to the rising wind and zoomed off towards the trees. Just as the building was starting to fade, we saw the Reflect smash into shards followed by a powerful Thunder charged up from the gathering clouds. Silver tried to reason with Noctowl, but it refused to listen to anyone but its trainer. Finally, though, it set him down at our campsite. Honchcrow landed right after, and I carried Crystal off his back.

I saw Silver's narrowed eyes. "She told us to get out of here. We should head for Goldenrod City and try to get as far away as possible."

"Do you think she can hold out on her own?" He asked tensely.

"Did you see that Thunder?" I asked with raised eyebrows. "She's definitely trained since I last saw her. I think she'll be fine. And if she's confident that she can fight her way out, then I have faith in her."

The redhead didn't say anything. He only returned to Noctowl's back. I nodded and got back into my seat on Honchcrow with Crystal. "Good. Now let's head for Goldenrod."

We lifted off and started into the gathering storm. If we were lucky, we could make it there without getting too soaked.

I was distracted by that thought when Silver suddenly veered to the right and flew into the distance.

"Where are you going?!" I yelled at him.

"Meet up at Goldenrod!" Was all he answered as he and Noctowl zoomed off.

I sighed. "Don't get caught!"

Since when was it my turn to say that?

* * *

Gardevoir: *standing guard at the bathroom door* Done yet?

Me: Grumble, grumble... *comes out in dress* May I please go change back now? This was all nice and fun, but I'm ready to go lay down and type some more!

Max: *dressed in a dress* Nope! *latches onto arm*

Carlos: *latches onto other arm* You're coming with us! *cheers* To the doughnuts!

Me: *gets dragged along* NO! ! !

Gardevoir: *holds door open while mock grinning* You guys have fun now!

Me: *looks up pleadingly but gets a door slam to the face*

Gardevoir: *plops down on the couch and flips on TV* Now what is this Adventure Time I've been hearing about...

Me: *still being dragged along* *sighs* So hi everyone! Having a good September? I am! *sorta...that homecoming... -_-'* Haha well it's a bit hectic when you're working on like 5 stories at the same time, but this one always comes first! ;) Review and return!


	8. Chapter 8: Into Ilex Part 3

Me: *running around in a circle* ERMAGERSH, ERMAGERSH, ERMAGERSH

Gardevoir: *watching freak out session with faint amusement* What's the occasion this time?

Me: *still running* So excited for the new season of Pokemon! I just finished watching the subbed Pokemon Origins episodes and they had a sneak peak for the XY season!

Gardevoir: *looks around desperately for Max and Carlos* *sighs* Why did they have to go out for coffee now? I don't want to listen to her rant...

Me: *running more frantically* So like! There was Ash and Pikachu, having a battle with awesome effects against a Vivillon, and a cute little Dedenne that's the size of a Pichu, and two new travelling companions that are like the exact opposite of Max and May's sibling relationship, and then, get this, there was SERENA! I couldn't understand anything since it was in Japanese, but there was this, like, flashback that showed Ash when he was, like, REALLY small, and then it all made sense. THEY'RE FREAKING CHILDHOOD FRIENDS! And then I thought, if Ash is STILL ten, and he's been on this journey for Arceus knows HOW long, then when was there EVER anytime for him and Serena to have met?! _Then _I thought, hot dang, the time in the anime world is, like, frozen O_O

Gardevoir: *blinks* You say like a lot.

Me: *pauses running* STOP TALKING!

Gardevoir: **Disclaimer: Eon doesn't own Pokemon in any form. Goodness, it'd be even more messed up if she did -_-'**

* * *

Chapter Eight: Silver

The pillars of lightening dancing in the distance eventually led me back to where Soul was fighting to escape. As I flew into view, I could see she had the rest of her team out around her. Along with the Raichu there was an Azumarill, Ninetales, Bellossom, and Hitmontop. She was managing to protect herself against the grunts, and her Raichu was keeping Drake on his Skarmory at bay.

I unleashed Weavile, Feraligatr, and Kingdra to fight at the center with Soul and sent Gyarados to dent the perimeter. At the sight of reinforcements, the brunette's head shot up. Her eyes widened when she saw me zoom by on Noctowl's back using Extrasensory to take out enemies from the sky. I managed to take down two rings of opponents around Soul before Drake noticed and set his sights on me. Noctowl flew straight up to avoid an X-Scissor, and after that our battle was taken to the clouds.

"Decided to come back did you?" Drake yelled over the rising thunder. "Didn't think your little girlfriend could handle herself?"

"She's not my girlfriend!" I snapped at him as lightening streaked by.

"Tell that to those rosy cheeks of yours!" He snickered from below.

My hand flew to my face, and I growled once I realized they were warm. Rain started coming down again, and I had Noctowl use Reflect to create a box of energy to keep the drops out. Good thing, too, because Drake came shooting upwards with an X-Scissor aimed for us right then. It bounced off the barrier, and the Skarmory retreated back. A strange metallic light began gathering in its mouth as it stopped moving. My eyes widened, and I quickly told Noctowl to dodge. We barely survived as a Flash Cannon shot by and seared the tips of the Pokemon's feathers. Skarmory took a minute to recharge so I pulled out my Pokedex to check out Noctowl's moves.

"Okay, let's try Extrasensory," I told it.

The Flying type rounded back on Skarmory, its eyes glowing an unsettling red. The opponent reeled away at the huge wave of psychic power. It managed to clip the end of Noctowl's tail with an X-Scissor, though, as we flew by. There was a small fault in our flight, but other than that we were fine.

"If you had just waited, we would've let you go!" Drake yelled after me.

I flew back towards him. "Don't try to make this our fault! We're only trying to save our friend!" Noctowl was closing in on its attacker. "Extrasensory!"

The blast of energy blew Skarmory at least fifty feet away. It even flinched. Taking advantage of the opportunity, I had Noctowl use Air Slash as well. The little blades of air smashed into Skarmory's armor with the force of a thousand bullets. Drake and his Pokemon went flying through the rain and disappeared into the dark clouds. Noctowl turned away from their departure, and we went to go help Soul again.

The rain was drenching the Team Rocket grunts, but Soul was safe and dry behind a Light Screen from her Azumarill. Gyarados was thrashing through the grunts and making their numbers smaller so I decided to help Soul battle from the center. She saw me coming and had her Pokemon create an opening in the barrier. Once I was inside, the hole melted back together.

"Are there more coming?" Soul asked as she kept calling out moves.

"I didn't see any," I shook my head telling Weavile to use Icy Wind on some approaching grunts. "I think they've sent out all that they have here."

"Then at this rate we may get out home-free!" She grinned.

"Don't get too cocky," I muttered in warning. "You never know what tricks they might have up their sleeves."

Soul had her Noctowl use Reflect again and raised an eyebrow at me. "We've got double the barriers this time. They can't touch us!"

"You would think so," I said watching the sky for Drake. It was hard to see anything, though, when the rain was obscuring our view outside the barrier.

"Did Gold and Crystal manage to get away?" She asked over a burst of thunder.

I nodded. "They're heading to Goldenrod as we speak."

She was quiet a moment. "You should've gone with them."

"And where would that leave you?" I snapped at her.

She shut her mouth, and I nodded as the two of us silently went back to battling. Her Hitmontop was the first to go down. It had been fighting outside the barriers, kicking and tripping opponents, before growing weak and stumbling into our safe zone. Soul returned it and smiled sadly at the Pokeball. "We have to be careful not to let them overexert themselves," she said with a frown, "or else we won't be able to finish this fight."

"We may not have a choice," I observed as Weavile sent out another Icy Wind. "With the numbers surrounding us, we'll have to give it all we've got just to break free of their hold."

I took a minute to assess the battle. Gyarados was the only Pokemon now remaining outside the forcefield. All the others were fighting from inside. They were rapidly weakening, though, and Soul and I both knew it.

I grabbed her shoulder. "We have to get out of here."

She bit her lip and looked up at Noctowl. "But I don't think he's ready for two people yet."

"Well, we don't exactly have enough time to come up with another plan," I yelled as lightening went off.

"We can keep fighting and run when we get the chance," she said with tarnished hope.

"Soul!" I shouted sharply. "Look at our teams! They're not going to last long enough for us to make a run for it!" I narrowed my eyes at her. "If we don't go now we might not get the chance later."

She sighed and stared up at her Flying type. "Okay, we can try."

I nodded, and we returned all our Pokemon. We moved fast so that we could be gone by the time the Reflect and Light Screen wore off. I glanced up, seeing my Shiny Gyarados, and decided to return him once we flew by.

"You ride on its back," I told her firmly. "It'll be safer."

She hesitated as the Flying type landed, so I picked her up by the arms and forcefully put her in place. She huffed in protest, but there was no time for arguments. The barriers were beginning to chip away already. Noctowl lifted off easily and latched onto my shoulders. It was carefully beginning to lift me up when a streak of darkness burst through the force fields and slammed into Noctowl. Soul and I were thrown to the ground, and the Pokemon tried to regain its balance in the air as the barriers shattered into pieces. However, before the grunts could get to us, a black void suddenly appeared beneath our feet. It immediately began sucking Soul and me in, and within a matter of seconds, we'd vanished.

The grunts shot down Noctowl which was becoming frantic at our sudden disappearance. As they held it down, Drake landed with his Skarmory, returning a Pokeball to his pocket. He approached the diminishing void, a bead of sweat mingling with the rain on his forehead.

"That should keep them contained," he muttered lowly. "And like I promised, we'll let them go once we're done with Yellow." He grabbed his head suddenly as if something were paining him. The redhead waved his hand, though, as the grunts looked at him in concern. "I'm fine," he sighed, slipping his sunglasses over his eyes.

Seeing that its restrainers were momentarily distracted, Noctowl snapped its wings out and knocked them aside. It swooped up and, tucking its feathers close, dive-bombed straight into the void after Soul and me. Its timing was close, for a second later, the strange portal was gone.

* * *

I slowly blinked my eyes open. An oppressive darkness swallowed up the air around me, and I stood staring at the blank scenery. Soul was beside me, watching the nothingness with wide eyes.

"Where are we?"

I looked around. "I don't know. There's...nothing here."

She reached for her bag. "I'll have Ninetales light the path in front of us to see if we can find anything." As soon as she brought out the Pokeball, it burned to ashes in her hand and fell through her fingers. Her eyes widened in horror. "What...just..."

A sinister growl echoed from ahead. We glanced up slowly to see it was Soul's Ninetales. Its eyes glowed a menacing red, and it looked about ready to rip our throats out.

"What's wrong?" She asked anxiously with a tilted head.

The brunette took a step towards the Pokemon before I pulled her back. "No, don't go near it."

"But something's not right with her!" Soul protested. "I have to help her!"

Ninetales growled again, crouching down as if it were about to spring. I tugged on her hand. "We need to go!"

She hesitated a moment, and that's when the fire fox leaped. I tackled Soul to the ground so Ninetales would miss. It overshot by a good ten yards, and I yanked Soul to her feet. "Come on!"

We started running through the black expanse. The ground didn't even look like ground. It felt like our feet were hitting a solid surface, but there was nothing there except darkness. Looking over my shoulder, I saw that Ninetales was hot on our heels. During the brief moment that I glanced away, Soul accidentally tripped over her own feet and fell. Before I could yank her off the ground or out of the way, Nintales caught up. The Fire type jumped straight at us, claws outstretched and teeth bared. We braced ourselves for the impact, but Ninetales actually shot right _through us. _As if it were an apparition or something.

Our heads snapped around, and we watched as the Pokemon kept running and eventually faded into the darkness. I blinked, and all of a sudden we were sitting on a hill in the middle of a pasture. A tree sat above us at the top of the rise, and the insert of the sun took me by surprise.

Soul uncovered her head and slowly blinked in shock. "How did we get _here_?"

I glanced down and saw that Ninetales' Pokeball was back in her hand, the Pokemon sleeping inside. "I don't know, but everything's fine now I guess."

"Do you have any idea where we are?" She asked taking in the surroundings.

"Not a clue." I glanced up at the tree. "I'm still stuck on where we were before."

"This is weird," Soul muttered. "How did Ninetales not kill us?"

I was going to put in my penny's worth when we heard someone nearby. Getting to our feet, we watched as Gold suddenly appeared at the bottom of the hill, running straight past us. I raised an eyebrow and froze when I looked ahead of him. There was a steep cliff coming up quickly, and the raven-haired boy showed no signs of slowing up.

Rushing down the hill, I sprinted fearfully after him. "Gold!" He just kept running, and I growled. "GOLD!"

He literally stopped right on the edge of the drop. "Oh! Silvy! What are you doing here?"

"What are _you doing_?" I yelled at him. "Get away from there!"

He tilted his head, and the rocks began to crumble beneath his feet. His eyes widened, and I ran to grab him. My fingers only grabbed air, though, and I watched in shock as he fell to the ground. I just couldn't look away. Someone turned my head, and all of a sudden I was hiding my eyes in Soul's shoulder.

When I could manage to lift my eyes, I saw the world fading to the same black as before. This time a fog rolled in that instead shrouded our view in gray. The clouds swirled and clashed like living beings, and Soul slowly released me.

"That did not just happen," I rasped softly.

Soul shook her head in disbelief. "No, this just keeps getting stranger. I'ts like we're being forced to live our worst nightmares." She gasped lightly. "That's it, Silver! We're dreaming!"

I raised an eyebrow. "But we're awake."

"Maybe it's one of those times when you can tell you're dreaming," she shrugged. "I've had those before. You're sort of conscious."

"Either way, that wasn't my worst fear," I muttered. "I just worry sometimes that Gold's stupidity will be the death of him."

Soul nodded. "Me, too. My Ninetales loves the outdoors, and I fear one day she'll just completely turn on me and decide to go wild."

"Then that explains those first scenes." I glanced at the eerie surroundings. "Are you scared of fog?"

She shook her head. "Let's follow it, though. Maybe we'll find a way to wake up."

We started off into the mist. A little ways in, a strange pain started in the back of my head, and I rubbed my temple lightly. Soon enough, the fog began to clear. The pain subsided slightly, and Soul and I stopped as we came upon some buildings set among a silent forest. Everything about it was quiet; nothing moved, and we didn't dare disturb the peace. Soul was getting ready to say something when loud sirens starting going off, and the buildings were dotted with red lights.

"Now where are we?" Soul asked as my eyes widened in recognition.

"My past," I murmured with a frown.

Suddenly the scene changed, and we were watching as a boy and girl ran down a hallway. They both wore sleek masks that hid their faces. At one point the little redheaded boy tripped, and the girl kept running. Then she realized he'd fallen behind and came back for him. Her brown hair swished as she pulled him up and led him to a hidden spot to rest.

"Let's try getting these masks off before we escape," she said prying the plate from her face.

She did the same for the little boy, and he blinked in surprise. His eyes showed fear; not just the fear of getting caught, but also that of a minute ago when he'd fallen. When he thought she'd left him and wasn't coming back.

She grinned touching his cheek. "So this how you look like..."

Then the boy blushed slightly, and the fear was instantly gone from his eyes.

"Oh! We must hurry!" The girl said quickly.

Soul blinked watching as the kids started running again and the scene melted back into fog. "That was...you...wasn't it?"

I nodded after a moment. "Blue and I were escaping from the man who had kidnapped us when we were younger."

Her eyes widened, and I felt another pain blossom in my head. The mist began moving again, and this time there was a rocky valley with a castle of ice. Green and I were battling against an Onix that held one of Melany's henchmen. Feraligatr shot a Hydro Cannon at the Rock type that made it smash into the mountainside behind it. I watched my other self look over and find Blue standing triumphantly over the other fallen Onix. The previous impact ignited a rock slide that was aimed straight for her unsuspecting figure.

"Oh no!" Soul shouted.

"Wait for it," I said simply.

"BLUE!"

My other self turned as Green went sprinting by with his Golduck. The Water type shot rocks away from Blue, and I felt the surprise even now as Green stopped the huge boulder from crushing Blue. The second Onix recovered and started attacking again, so the other me had to go back to battling. When he turned back, the rock slide was over, and Blue was wrapping Green's arm with his jacket. She looked quite mad, and so did he. The other me was getting ready to go check on them when Green kissed Blue. Once more, I could feel my surprise all over again at the sudden gesture. My other self instantly shook his head and focused on fighting the Onix. It wasn't much longer until it went down, and Feraligatr was returned. When the other me looked back, Blue was helping Green up the rise to where he was. She was smiling, and his cheeks were tinged pink.

Soul tilted her head at my other self as he walked away and tried opening the doors to the ice castle. She only saw the impassive look plastered across his face, but I knew what the facade hid. That feeling of knowing that something had just ended. That feeling of having to let go of something dear. And the feeling of utter...loneliness.

The mist obscured our vision again, and it was gone within seconds.

"Were those...memories?" Soul asked quietly.

I nodded slowly saying nothing. She bit her lip, a hand reaching out to comfort me, but I walked away. She followed silently then grabbed her head with a pained frown as we strode right into another scene. It was alien to me though, so I knew it couldn't be another one of my memories. I easily identified the dock at Olivine Port. There was a ship waiting to leave, and a family stood at the ramp. The father was at the base of the entrance stairs, a distance away from the mother and two little girls I assumed to be her daughters. One of them had long dark brown hair and matching dark brown eyes. The other's eyes were a lighter brown, and her identically brown hair hung just to her shoulders. She looked about five, and the former a little older.

"But why are you guys leaving?" The smaller girl asked grabbing her sister's hand. "You don't have to go to Sinnoh! Stay here with Mommy and me!"

"I'll make sure to come back and visit," the dark-haired girl promised. She gave her sister and mother a sad farewell hug before heading to the father.

The light brunette had to be held back as they boarded the ship. "Heart!"

The other girl didn't look back. The resisting one started crying and hid her face in her mother's shirt. After a few minutes, the boat had set off, and the girl who had been left behind cried out loudly.

"Is sissy gone yet?"

The woman nodded sadly. "Yes, she's gone."

My eyes widened as the tear-stricken face was clouded with mist. I glanced over at Soul, but she had her gaze trained on the gray-scale ground. Her hand was still on her head, and she flinched slightly. When I turned away, the low clouds were beginning to clear again.

This time the light brunette was older, maybe about ten. She was sitting at the front window of a home watching the outside excitedly. After a while, she bounced up off the floor and ran to open the door.

"Gold!"

I watched curiously as a ten year-old Gold bounded through the entrance with matching excitement. "Hi, Soul! Is she here yet?!"

The brunette shook her head. "No, but her flight should land sometime later today!"

Gold shut the door behind him and grabbed the girl's hands in delight. "It's been forever since we've seen her!"

She nodded. "It's been at least a year since she last came to visit."

"I hope she's doing well!" Gold grinned. "Do you think she'll have any Pokemon?"

"If she does they'll be ones from Sinnoh that we don't know," Soul said uncertainly.

Gold thought a moment. "Hey, Soul, why don't we get you a Pokemon? You're always saying how you like playing with the ones at my house."

"Yes, but those are yours," she waved her hands. "I couldn't possibly take one of them."

"Then why not see if Professor Elm will give you one? He hands out starters to new trainers all the time, and you're old enough to get one from him."

Soul's eyes lit up. "I have a better idea! There are three starters right?" Gold nodded curiously, and she giggled. "Why don't we all go on an adventure once she gets here? It'll be me, you, and Heart!"

The dark-haired boy grinned wider. "That's a great idea! I can try out my new skateboard and train Poltaro in new places!" He paused. "But doesn't Heart have to go _back _to Sinnoh?"

"Yes, but maybe we can convince her to stay!" Soul suggested. "She did say she was trying to decide on whether or not to come back to Johto!"

Gold nodded. "Alright, it's a deal! The first one to the Champion wins!"

Soul bumped his outstretched hand. "It's on!"

The fog started disturbing the picture, and I waited with Soul for it to clear up again. This time it showed Soul's younger self with a phone to her ear. She was frowning and looked about ready to break.

"But I was so excited to see you!" She cried into the phone.

I could barely hear another girl's voice on the other side of the line. "I know, but the plane broke down, and there's not another one leaving for a whole month!"

Soul clenched her teeth. "Then I'll just come see you."

There was a pause. "Do you have the money?"

Soul nodded. "I've been saving up ever since you left so I could come surprise you and Daddy!"

"Great! How soon can you be here?"

The brunette looked up in thought. "I was checking the departures for the S.S. Anne, and I believe there's one bound for Sinnoh in a couple days."

"Will Mom be okay with it?" The other girl asked anxiously.

"She's been asking me when I was going to visit anyway," Soul flicked her hand. "I'll see you soon!"

"Dad and I will be waiting!"

Again the vision started shifting, and the next showed Soul sitting on her couch, the television flashing the news which was documenting a bad storm brewing over Olivine City. Her mother walked in with a plate of cookies and offered the sad girl a smile.

"Honey, I'm sorry," she said softly, "but it's too dangerous for the ship to try and brave a storm this bad."

"I know," Soul sighed quietly. She looked at the sunny skies outside the window. "I wish ships could leave from the bay here in town."

The woman gave her a tight hug and went to check on something that was cooking in the kitchen. Soul glanced over at the phone before snatching it up. "I'll give Gold a call and see if he wants to go play!"

The line rang a few times before someone picked up. "Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Kiniro!" Soul said brightly. "Is Gold home?"

"Oh dear, he's not," she said with a sigh. "He took one of Professor Elm's Pokemon the other day to chase after some other boy. I wish he would've told me first."

Soul froze. "He's not here?"

"No, I'm afraid he's set out on that journey he's been getting really excited about recently."

Soul's eyes widened, and she nodded. "Thank you for letting me know."

"You're welcome, dear." Then the woman hung up.

Soul put the phone down and jumped off the couch. "Mom! I'm going to Professor Elm's!"

"Don't be long!" Her mother called from the kitchen. "Supper's almost ready!"

Soul flew down the streets to the laboratory. She rushed through the front doors and almost ran into an assistant. The brunette apologized politely before looking for Professor Elm. She found him in the back of the lab looking into a microscope.

"Professor!" She called out.

The man glanced up and turned around in his swivel chair. "Ah, Soul. What can I do for you?"

She was panting from the sudden run. "Do...you...still have...a starter...Pokemon...?"

His smile slowly faded. "I'm sorry, but I don't. A thief broke into my lab the other day and stole the Totodile I had here." He glared slightly. "And then Gold took Cyndaquil with him to try and track down the thief."

"But doesn't that leave one more?" Soul asked desperately. "Chikorita?"

Elm rubbed the back of his neck. "I had that Pokemon prepared for another trainer Professor Oak is hiring. I actually just sent it right before you came. I was getting ready to go meet up with him and make sure everything was prepared later this week."

She hung her head slowly. "Alright then."

He frowned sadly as she started walking away. "I'm sorry, Soul!"

She waved a hand at him half-halfheartedly. "It's okay. Thank you, Professor."

I watched as she exited the lab and went to sit among the grass of the nearby Route 29. She stared at the Pokemon frolicking in the tall grass, tears shining in her eyes. Angrily rubbing them away, she tried to smile up at the sky. "Good luck, Gold."

The mist fuzzed the picture once more, and I stood there waiting for more. Nothing came, though, and I looked at Soul who was watching her feet.

"Now you know," she said softly. "When I saw you in Olivine City, I recognized you from one of the few pictures Gold sent me after he saved Johto a couple years ago. I thought you might be going to see him, so I tagged along. It'd been so long since I'd actually talked to Gold face to face."

I nodded slowly, watching her intently. "I understand."

She glanced up and looked away bitterly. "Don't look at me like that, okay? By the time Gold had left to track you down, my sister, Heart, had started her own journey in Sinnoh. First she'd left me, and then my best friend did, too. I didn't mean to be such a nuisance in following you from Olivine. It's just that, after watching everyone go off on adventures so many times, I was scared that...once again, I was going to be..."

"Left behind."

Her head snapped up to me with wide eyes. I glanced ahead, not looking her way.

"It's okay. Because that's my darkest nightmare, too."

She stared at me, eyes softening the smallest bit.

I looked back at her before beginning to walk again. "Let's see if we can find a way out of here. Or to wake up, I guess."

Soul nodded with a small smile and followed. "It _is _a little peculiar, isn't it? Being in a dream like this?"

"Yeah, I wonder what Drake did to us." I frowned thinking of a certain blonde. "If he's anything like Melany, he'll no doubt have some strange ways of doing things."

I was about to take another step when a bomb of pain exploded in my head. My knees buckled automatically on their own, and Soul knelt beside me instantly. "Are you okay?!"

I couldn't answer. Something odd was happening.

The fog began moving again, and a scene unfamiliar to both of us popped up. The fog didn't clear all the way this time which made it difficult to see what was happening. From what I could tell through the severe pain taking up residence in my brain and the swirling mist, it was nighttime in the image. There was a complex set in a forest that seemed to ring a bell, but the scene was so obscured by fog that I couldn't be sure. Someone was running through the darkness, though. Again, it was too blurry to make out who. Soul and I stood watching as the figure made its way to a building with all its windows lit up. Then the scene stopped, and it was like someone had hit a slow-motion button. The entire wall of the building slowly exploded outwards sending debris flying in every direction. And if I was seeing things right, there was a rainbow of colored ashes mixed in with the catastrophic mess. The figure was thrown to the ground as a shock wave blasted from the wreckage sailing away faster than a Yanma jacked up on Speed Boost. The air sparkled from the spectrum of ashes, and the figure that was running before didn't move from its spot on the ground. Something else, though, was stumbling out of the broken building, and I only got a glimpse of two golden wings before the fog totally abolished the last remaining wisps of the scene.

Soul's eyes were wide as the pain in my head faded away and I slowly stood up. "Was that another memory?"

"No," I shook my head suspiciously. "I've never seen that in my life."

Then there was a sudden slap across both our minds, and we instantly blacked out.

* * *

I snapped my eyes open to see Noctowl perched on my and Soul's sprawled forms, beak still poised from pecking us awake. She was holding her head and looking down at me groggily.

"Hey, you awake yet?" She mumbled while readjusting her hat.

Sitting up, I almost immediately sweat-dropped. "I'm not sure."

We'd awoken to yet another blank void of space, the darkness resembling the scenery from Soul's Nintales nightmare. This time, however, there were a million dots of light above our heads that made me think they were stars in the night sky. There was a certain chill to the air that I honestly did not like, and I pulled Soul to her feet quickly.

"Come on," I muttered, effectively creeped out. "Let's just find a way out of here already."

We started walking along when the shadows started to move. Soul froze for a moment, and they started rushing past us. She screamed, and I shoved her onto Noctowl's back before sprinting ahead. The darkness kept right up with me and streaked past like a band of phantoms trying to rip my hair out. The "stars" provided no sense of direction, so I was just wandering aimlessly in this strange realm. I don't even know how long it was until I heard something. Ceasing my running, the sound stopped. I raised an eyebrow and saw that the noise was my footsteps on smooth stone.

"What...?" I grumbled under my breath.

In the middle of the sea of darkness I had somehow stumbled upon an old-styled cobblestone path. It kept going on into the darkness to my left and did the same thing to my right. It was like someone had randomly decided to start up a replica of a fifteenth century kingdom. Just without the cottages or castle or basically anything other than this road.

Glancing up, I saw that there were no "stars" hanging anywhere in the sky along the stone path. I got curious so I started walking down the left-hand side, Noctowl following with a curious Soul on his back. We made our way along silently for a while, but then again I couldn't tell how much time was passing in this weird place. Eventually I had to stop because the road suddenly split in two. I looked both ways, tilting my head.

The right path seemed at least a little better. There was fog similar to the one when Soul and I were dreaming, but it was darker and churned like an angry storm. The left path was completely dark, though. I could see my feet through the darkness we were currently in, but that path just seemed to stain everything black. Even the stones disappeared farther down the road.

"Take the foggy one," Soul said obviously.

"No duh," I muttered aiming away from the dark road.

There was a strange sound when I came within one foot from the mist. At first I thought it was a howl of wind or something, but after listening hard and quiet, I could finally make out a few words.

_"...Go...back..."_

It almost sounded like a girl's voice. Not one that I knew, though. Even so, there was something about that warning that made me take it seriously.

I was standing there trying to figure out where it was coming from when the "stars" started flashing above our heads.

Soul's eyes whipped up to the sky, and mine followed hers as one of the lights just beside the stone path began pulsing madly. A few moments later, it was expanding, and light poured into the darkness like a broken dam. We had to look away, but when I glanced back, Drake was hovering there on the back of his Skarmory. A hole was torn in the sky, and through it I could see the desk of his office.

"I came to check on you guys," Drake smirked. "Doing well?"

"Where is this place?" Soul asked in horror. "No, forget that. _What _is this place?!"

"Depends on which place you're talking about," he neatly dodged the question.

I narrowed my eyes. We didn't have time for this. I pointed up at the hole. "Is that how you got here?"

Drake perked an eyebrow. "Maybe."

I looked at Noctowl, and it nodded sharply. The Flying type let loose an Extrasensory that collided harshly with Skarmory and made both it and its trainer wince with pain. Like our sky battle the move caused them to flinch, and Noctowl bunched up its muscles quickly. I was really hoping right then that it was stronger than Soul thought. Like a miracle, it latched onto my shoulders and carried Soul and me up through the dark portal and out into the light of Drakes's office with only a few signs of struggle.

Moving fast, Soul and I rushed out the door with Noctowl right behind, surprised when we met no grunts in the building. Outside we could see why. Gyarados was going crazy from my disappearance and all the low-ranking lackies were trying to subdue it. Sure now that Noctowl was capable of carrying two, Soul jumped on its back, and I let it grab hold of me once again. Flying over all the grunts, we zoned in on Gyarados. Once he finally noticed me I was able to get him inside his Pokeball. Noctowl lifted off in time before the grunts could react and got away safely.

By now the storm clouds had broken apart, and Soul and I let out a sigh of relief as the first light of dawn started peaking over the horizon.

Back in Drake's office, said boy was stumbling out of the void in the room's floor with his Skarmory. Collapsing on the ground, he managed to return his Pokemon before letting his head fall in exhaustion. The sunglasses on his face fell off, clattering on the floor, and he hid his eyes behind his bangs as a shadowy figure approached him from the back of the room.

"Did they get away?" He asked tautly, clenching his teeth in pain.

The shadow gestured towards the door, and Drake scoffed in annoyance before biting his lip. The boy grabbed at his head, and the figure bent over him knowing that something was wrong.

"I'll be okay," he muttered bitterly. "Just another headache."

The figure only nodded as the void slowly shrank, watching as the boy's ice blue eyes flashed yellow.

* * *

Gardevoir: Explain this better please. How in any way could the anime world be frozen in time? If Ash actually did have a childhood with Serena, that means he had to have grown up sometime!

Me: *still running frantically in a circle* Well, you see, remember how he saw Ho-Oh at the end of the first episode?!

Gardevoir: *raises eyebrow* Yes...

Me: *flicks hands* Well, they say that anyone lucky enough to see Ho-Oh is blessed with eternal happiness and stuff!

Gardevoir: *narrows eyes* So?

Me: *throws arms around* Well! Ho-Oh doesn't exactly show up in the anime all that often! It isn't even in any movie except as a disguise of Mew, but that doesn't count! So since Ash is one of the REALLY few amount of people to have seen it, then it makes perfect sense that he is one of the only few people to be granted eternal happiness. And _his _eternal happiness could've been to travel to new places, meet new Pokemon, and battle all kinds of people, so to ensure that, Ho-Oh stopped time in the anime O.O

Gardevoir: *facepalm* Arceus...

Me: *collapses from running* Well, it makes sense!

Gardevoir: You say well a lot, too *sweatdrop*

Me: *looks up sharply* Please...STOP TALKING!

Finally finished the third section of the Ilex part of the story! Oh! And for those of you wondering what the heck was going on with Drake at the end there... :3 hehe, feeling evil again...

XD Review and return!


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